Bancroft  Library 


p"  RBU-.K  MXTY.FOPRTH  YEAR. 


NOV  5    1935 

THE 


NORTH  AMERICAN 
REVIEW. 


EDITED  BY  ALLEN  THORNDIKE  RICE. 


June,  1879. 

I.  Mon  Testament :  fepitre k Chloe.   An  Unpublished  Poem.  Voltaire. 
II.   National  Appropriations  and  Misappropriations.  .General  Garfifld. 

III.  The  Stagnation  of  Trade  and  its  Cause.  .  .Professor  Bonamy  Price. 

IV.  The  Education  of  Freedmen Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. 

V.  Secret  Missions  to  San  Domingo Admiral  D.  D.  Porter. 

VI.  Sacred  Books  of  the  East Professor  Max  Muller. 

VII.  Evolution   and  Theology Professor  Simon  Newcomb. 

VIII.  The  Pacific  Railroad Henry  V.  Poor. 

IX.  Current   Literature Mayo  W.  Hazeltine. 

X.  Will  England  return  to  Protection  ?     A  Letter  to  the  Editor. 

The  Right  Hon.  John  Bright,  M.  P. 

NEW  YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

549  and  551  BROADWAY. 

LONDON:  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  Searle  <fe  RrviNGTON.— PARIS:  Tiie  Gaugnani  Library.— 

BERLIN:    A.   Abukr  «k  Co.  -  GKNKVA  :    J.   Cherbitliez  — ROME:    Loescher  &  Co.— 

"'!  LBOURNE:  W. Robertson.— YOKOHAMA  a.ni>  !*li    NGIIAl:  Kelly  &  Walsh. 


TEH  »  Mre  dollars  H,  year.    Sin«!p  number.  Fifty  Cents. 


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Volume  128  of  the  North  American  Review, 

NOW  BEADY,    COMPLETE. 

C03NTTE3STXS- 
JANTTARY. 

The  Fishery  Award.    Senator  George  F.  Edmunds. 

Unpublished  Fragments  of  the  "Little"  Period.    Thomas  Moorb. 

Cities  as  Units  in  our  Polity.    William  R.  Martin. 

The  Preservation  of  Forests.    Felix  L.  Oswald,  M.  D. 

The  "Solid  South."    Henry  Watterson. 

The  Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  Language,    W.  W.  Story. 

Substance  and  Shadow  in  Finance.    George  S.  Boutwell. 

The  Cruise  of  the  Florence.    Captain  H.  W.  Howgate. 

Kecent  Fiction.    Richard  Grant  White. 

FEBRUARY. 
The  Conduct  of  Business  in  Congress.    Senator  G.  F.  Hoar. 
The  Mysteries  of  American  Railroad  Accounting.    An  Accountant. 
A  Statesman  of  the  Colonial  Era.    General  Richard  Taylor. 
Reconstruction  and  the  Negro.    1).  II.  Chamberlain. 
The  Empire  of  the  Discontented.    A  Russian  Nihilist. 
The  Scientific  Work  of  the  Howgate  Expedition.    O.  T.  Sherman. 
Sensationalism  in  the  Pulpit.    William  M.  Taylor,  D.  D. 
Mediaeval  French  Literature.    Professor  T.  F.  Crane. 

MARCH. 

Ought  the  Negro  to  be  Disfranchised  P  Ought  he  to  have  been  Enfranchised  P 
Senator  J.  G.  Blaine:  Senator  L.  Q.  C  Lamar;  Governor  Wade  Hampton;  James  A.  Gab- 
field;  A.  H.  Stephens;  Wendell  Phillii  s  ;  Montgomery  Blair;  T.  A.  Hendricks. 

The  Philosophy  of  Jonathan  Edwards.    Professor  George  P.  Fisher,  D.D. 

The  Indian  Problem.    General  Nelson  A.  Miles. 

Cryptography  in  Politics.    John  R.  G.  Hassard. 

Russian  Novels  and  Novelists  of  the  Day.    S.  E.  Shevitch. 

Al'lUL. 

Retribution  in  Politics.    Thomas  A.  Hendricks. 

The  Public  Schools  of  England.    Thomas  Hughes. 

German  Socialism  in  America. 

A  Friend  of  Lord  Byron.    Henry  James,  Jr. 

The  Census  of  1880.    George  Walker. 

The  Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  Language.    Part  II.    W.  W.  Story. 

An  Indian's  Views  of  Indian  Affairs.    Chiel  Joseph. 

Hartmann's  "Religion  of  the  Future."    M.  A.  Hardaker. 

Recent  Miscellaneous  Literature.    A.  R.  McDonough. 

MA  Y. 

Our  Election  Laws.    Secretary  George  W.  McCrary. 

Campaign  Notss  in  Turkey  in  1877-' 78.    Lieutenant  F.  V.  Greenb. 

German  Socialism  in  America.    Part  II. 

Absent  Friends.    Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham. 

A  Plea  for  Sport.    Lloyd  S.  Brice. 

Notes  on  Recent  Progress  in  Applied  Science.    President  Morton. 

Law  and  Design  in  Nature,  Professor  Simon  Newcomb;  President  Noah  Pobtbb;  Rev. 
Joseph  Cook;  James  Freeman  Clarke,  D. D. ;  President  James  McCosh. 

JVXE. 

Mon  Testament.    An  Unpublished  Poem.    Voltaire. 

National  Appropriations  and  Misappropriations.    General  J.  A.  Garfield. 

The  Stagnation  of  Trade  and  its  Cause.    Professor  Bonamy  Pricb. 

The  Education  of  Freedmen.    Harriet  Bfecher  Stowe. 

Secret  Missions  to  San  Domingo.    Admiral  D.  D.  Porter. 

The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.    Professor  Max  Muxler. 

Evolution  and  Theology.    Professor  Simon  Newcomb. 

The  Pacific  Railroad.    Henry  V.  Poor. 

Current  Literature.    Mayo  W.  Hazeltine. 

Will  England  return  to  Protection?    The  Right  Hon.  John  Bright,  M.P. 

Price,  unbound,  $2.50;  bound  in.  cloth,  $3.00;  in  half  morocco,  $4.00. 

Sent  by  mail  on  receipt  of  price.    Address  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW,  Nbw  Yobk. 


THE 


J 


NORTH    AMERICAN 
REVIEW. 

I  St  • 
JTOE,   1879. 


i^M     *  Ol, \r V\  UL 


No.  271. 


Tros  Tyriusque  mihi  nullo  discrimine  agetur. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 

549    &    651    BROADWAY. 

1879. 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

ALLEN  THORNDIKE  RICE. 

1879. 


a.  '4  i°° 
NORTH  AMERICAN  REYIEW. 

JUNE,  1879. 

Abt.  Pagk 

I.  Mon  Testament.    IMtre  a  Chloe.    An  Unpublished 

Poem.     By  Francois  Marie  Arouet  de  Voltaire     565 

II.  National  Appropriations  and  Misappropriations. 

By  General  J.  A.  Garfield.  .  .  .     572 

III.  The   Stagnation   of    Trade   and   its   Cause.     By 

Professor  Bonamy  Price       ....     587 

IV.  The     Education     of     Freedmen.        By    Harriet 

Beeches  Stowe  .....     605 

V.  Secset  Missions  to  San  Domingo.     By  D.  D.  Pos- 

tee,  Admiral,  U.  S.  Navy     .  .  .  .616 

VI.  Sacred   Books   of   the   East.      By   Professor   Max 

Muller  .  .  .  .  .  .631 

VII.  Evolution  and  Theology.     A  Rejoinder.     By  Pro- 
fessor Simon  Newcomb  .  .  .     647 

VIII.  The  Pacific  Railroad.     By  Henry  V.  Poor         .     664 

IX.  Current  Literature.     By  Mayo  W.  Hazeltine    .     681 

X.  Will  England  return  to  Protection?  A  Letter 
to  the  Editor.  By  the  Right  Honorable  John 
Bright,  M.  P.  .  .  .  .  .     695 

Publications*  Received  ....     697 

Index       .......     699 


The  Editor  disclaims  responsibility  for  the  opinions 
of  contributors,  whether  their  articles  are  signed  or 
anonymous. 


NORTH   AMERICAN   REVIEW. 

No.  CCLXXI. 


JUNE,    1879. 


I. 

MON    TESTAMENT.* 

tPITRE  A  CHLO& 
Par  Francois  Marie  Arouet  de  Voltaire. 

Quoi,  ma  Chloe  !  le  seul  nom  de  ma  mort 

T'a  pu  causer  de  si  vives  alarmes ! 
De  ta  raison  j'attendais  plus  d'effort ; 

Sois  digne  en  tout  de  me  couter  des  larmes. 
Sur  cette  mort  que  la  main  de  FErreur 

Peint  si  terrible  au  timide  vulgaire, 
Apprends  enfin  le  secret  de  mon  cceur, 

Et  que  Famour  te  console  et  t'eclaire. 
Jnsqu'a  present  sur  mille  tours  divers, 

Tel  que  Zephire  jouant  dans  la  prairie, 

*  From  an  unpublished  autograph  MS.  of  Voltaire.—  Editor, 
vol.  cxxviii. — no.  271.  37 


566  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Les  jeux,  les  ris,  m'ont  inspire  des  vers, 

Comme  ils  filaient  tous  les  jours  de  ma  vie. 
Plus  que  jamais  dans  ces  derniers  instans, 

Crois  que  je  goiite  et  sens  le  bonheur  d'etre. 
Cueille  les  fleurs  que  t'offre  mon  printemps ; 

Le  noir  cypres  n'est  pas  loin  de  paraitre. 
Aimable  objet  dont  je  suis  enchant e, 

Pourquoi  faut-il  qu'une  chaine  si  belle 

Que  des  amours  Taniour  le  plus  fidele, 
Du  sort  commun  ne  soit  point  exceptee  ? 

Quel  plus  beau  titre  d  Fimmortalite  ! 
Mais  puisque  tout  dans  la  nature  entiere, 

Du  faible  arbuste  au  cedre  fastueux, 

De  la  cabane  au  palais  somptueux, 
Ressent  du  temps  Tatteinte  meurtriere  : 

Ecoute-moi :  je  veux  dans  ce  moment, 
L'ceil  eclaire  des  rayons  de  la  joie, 
Le  desoler  en  lui  cedant  sa  proie, 

Et  de  ma  mort  parler  en  badinant. 
Vois  quels  seront  &  mon  heure  derniere 

Mes  derniers  vceux  et  mes  derniers  desirs. 

Belle  Chloe  !  la  coupe  du  plaisir 
Change  en  nectar  une  liqueur  amere. 

Que  pretendaient  ces  monarques  stupides 
En  ecrasant  TEgypte  et  ses  enfants 


MON  TESTAMENT.  567 

De  leurs  tombeaux,  enorcnes  pyraniides, 
Masses  d'orgueil,  coupables  monuments, 

Qu'admire  encore  un  peuple  de  savants, 
De  rien  douteux,  admirateurs  avides  ? 

La  s'abimait  dans  une  urne  d'airain, 
D'un  roi  sans  nom  la  depouille  mortelle ; 
La  se  perdait  une  utile  parcelle 

De  ce  grand  tout  ou  rien  n'existe  en  vain, 
Ou  par  un  ordre  immuable  et  fidele 

Tout  fut  place  dans  un  commun  rapport ; 

Oii  rhomme  enfin  n'est  meme  apres  sa  mort 
Qu'un  des  anneaux  de  la  cliaine  eternelle. 

Belle  Chloe  !  n'interrompons  jamais 
Les  saintes  lois  qu'impose  la  Nature ; 

Nous,  les  suivons  sous  ces  ombrages  frais, 
Sous  ces  berceaux  tapisses  de  verdure. 

Mais  penses-tu  que  je  borne  mes  voeux 
A  t'adorer,  te  servir  et  te  plaire  ?  .  .  . 

Tromper  la  mort,  voiM,  ce  que  je  veux  ! 
Oui,  ma  Chloe,  que  sa  main  mena^ante 

Tranche  mes  jours  aupres  de  ces  lilas; 
Je  ne  crains  rien,  sa  rage  est  impuissante, 

Et  je  vivrai  meme  apres  mon  trepas. 
Helas  !  Tinstant  ou  je  te  parle  encore, 

De  mes  instants  peut  etre  le  dernier. 


568  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Par  toi,  Chloe,  par  tout  ce  que  j  'adore, 
Accorde-moi  la  grace  que  j'implore  ! 

L/amour  en  vain  pourrait-il  te  prier  ? 
Assure-moi  de  ma  metamorphose, 

Que,  depose  dans  ce  jardin  charmant, 

Py  reparaisse  au  retour  du  printemps, 
Dans  un  ceillet,  dans  un  bouton  de  rose. 

Mais,  ma  Chloe,  qu'il  soit  cueilli  par  toi. 
Viens  me  choisir  au  retour  de  Taurore, 

Que  ton  beau  sein  se  pare  encore  de  moi, 
Que  je  le  baise  et  le  parfume  encore. 

Paime  a  penser  pour  moi,  pour  mon  bonheur, 
Que  tu  diras  dans  un  moment  d'ivresse, 

"  Oui,  cher  amour,  tu  vis  dans  cette  fleur ; 
Ce  tendre  eclat,  cette  vive  couleur, 
Est  de  tes  feux  l'image  enchanteresse. 
Tu  sens  encore  et  la  main  qui  te  presse 

Et  le  plaisir  d'etre  pres  de  mon  cceur." 


MON  TESTAMENT.  569 

[translation.] 

MY  WILL. 

AN  EPISTLE  TO  CHLOE. 

What  !  my  own  Chloe  !  start  thus  at  a  sound  ? 

Pay  Death,  the  phantom,  this  tribute  of  fears  ? 
Nay,  let  thy  sense,  like  thy  beauty,  be  found 

Worthy  of  worship  and  worthy  of  tears  ! 
Leave  the  wild  visions  that  error  can  feign 

To  madden  the  vulgar  with  anguish  and  dread  ! 
Clasped  to  my  heart,  let  my  reason  explain 

How  love  may  live  on  in  the  realm  of  the  dead  ! 
Not  such  the  themes  I  have  loved  to  rehearse  ; 

Free  as  the  zephyr  that  plays  o'er  the  plain 
Sportive  and  smiling,  I've  woven  my  verse — 

Joy  was  its  burden,  and  laughter  its  strain. 
Yet,  brighter  than  ever  the  moments  appear 

Now  that  the  tale  of  their  number  is  told. 
Let  us  gather  the  spring,  and  the  bloom  of  the  year; 

Dark  are  the  months  of  the  cypress,  and  cold  ! 

Why  should  it  be,  my  enchantress,  that  Fate 

Not  the  most  faithful  of  passions  will  spare  ? 
Why  must  our  raptures  be  bound  by  a  date, 

Why  of  things  mortal  the  destiny  share  ? 
Nothing  around  us  against  it  is  proof, 

Nor  shrubs  in  the  vale,  nor  cedars  on  high, 
Nor  thatch  of  the  hut,  nor  proud  palace  roof; 

All  things  are  doomed  but  to  be — and  to  die  ! 
Let  us  then  baffle  the  triumph  of  Time  ! 

Welcome  the  blow  that  w,e  can  not  delay, 


570  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Yield  him  his  prize,  with  a  jest  and  a  rhyme, 
Pass,  at  his  summons,  but  smiling,  away  ! 

Lean  then  and  listen,  my  Chloe,  to  hear 
What  my  last  longing  and  wishes  will  be  ; 

Though  bitter  the  draught,  'twill  nectar  appear 
Held  to  my  lips,  my  beloved,  by  thee  ! 

What  sought  the  dotards  and  tyrants  that  bowed 
t    Egypt,  in  tears  and  in  sweat,  to  their  will, 
Loading  the  earth  with  their  pyramids  proud — 

Tombs  of  their  guilt  and  delusion — that  still, 

Awful  and  silent,  with  reverence  thrill 
The  open-mouthed,  wandering,  wondering  crowd  ? 

There,  in  the  depths  of  a  chamber,  inurned, 
Sealed,  and  secluded,  and  wasting  away, 

Lies  what  is  left  of  a  monarch  who  spurned 
Nature's  beneficent  beautiful  sway  ! 

Robbing  the  earth  of  the  dust,  that,  returned, 
Blooms  into  glory  again  and  the  day  ! 

Ah  !  in  this  All  there  is  nothing  in  vain  ! 
Each  thing  to  each  everlastingly  bound, 

This,  that  was  Man,  in  the  natural  chain 
Finds  its  own  place,  and  moves  on  in  the  round  ! 

Not  then  by  us  be  the  laws  disobeyed, 
Beautiful  Chloe  !  that  Nature  decrees, 

No  !  we  have  followed  them,  here,  in  this  shade, 
Broken  with  sunshine  and  stirred  by  the  breeze  ! 

But  not  alone  to  bear  thy  graceful  yoke 

Or  make  thee  happy — Chloe  !  is  my  dream — 
Fain  would  I  cheat  of  Death  the  final  stroke, 

And  foil  the  tyrant  in  his  hour  supreme  ! 
Here  let  him  find  me  with  uplifted  knife  ! 

Here — where  our  lilacs  fragrant  breathe  and  bloom  ! 
I  fear  him  not !  he  can  not  take  my  life  ! 

That  life  escapes  him  even  in  the  tomb  ! 


MON  TESTAMENT.  571 

Alas  !  it  may  be  even  while  I  speak 

That  my  last  moment  sounds — and  all  is  o'er  ! 
Grant  me  this  boon  !  the  last  that  I  may  seek, 

Let  not  my  love  in  vain  this  grace  implore  ! 
Chloe  !  to  thee  my  future  I  confide  ! — 

Here  in  this  garden  let  my  burial  be  ! — 
Reviving  here,  with  Spring's  returning  tide, 

In  May's  first  rosebud  let  me  bloom  for  thee  ! 
Here  come — and  pluck  me  when  the  morn  shall  break — 

And  Chloe  !  deck  thy  bosom  with  me  still ! 
Ah  !  let  me  hope  that  Chloe,  for  my  sake, 

My  very  inmost  self  with  joy  to  fill 

May  whisper  gently,  while  her  senses  thrill: 
"  Yes,  dearest  love  !  thou  livest  in  this  rose  ! 
Its  tender  bloom,  its  vivid  hues  disclose 

The  image  and  the  presence  of  thy  flame  ! 

And  thou  canst  feel  my  soft  caress  the  same, 
And,  clasped  upon  my  heart,  thy  being  glows  !  " 


II. 

NATIONAL  APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPRO- 
PRIATIONS. 


Ax  eminent  French  statesman  has  said  :  "  A  nation  embodies 
its  spirit,  and  much  of  its  history,  in  its  financial  laws.  Let  one  of 
our  budgets  alone  survive  the  next  deluge,  and  in  it  will  plainly 
appear  all  that  we  are." 

If  our  republic  were  blotted  from  the  earth  and  from  the  memory 
of  mankind,  and  if  no  record  of  its  history  survived,  except  a  copy 
of  our  revenue  laws  and  our  appropriation  bills  for  a  single  year, 
the  political  philosopher  would  be  able  from  these  materials  alone 
to  reconstruct  a  large  part  of  our  history,  and  sketch  with  con- 
siderable accuracy  the  character  and  spirit  of  our  institutions. 

Revenue  is  not,  as  some  one  has  said,  the  friction  of  a  govern- 
ment, but  rather  its  motive  power.  As  in  the  human  body  every 
motion  is  produced  by  an  expenditure  of  vital  force,  so  in  govern- 
ment the  exercise  of  the  smallest  function  is  accompanied,  or  rather 
is  produced,  by  an  expenditure  of  money. 

To  collect,  from  the  property  and  labor  of  a  nation,  a  revenue 
sufficient  to  carry  on  the  various  departments  of  its  Government, 
and  so  to  distribute  that  revenue  as  to  supply  every  part  of  the 
complicated  machinery  with  adequate  motive  power,  neither,  on  the 
one  hand,  crippling  the  resources  of  the  people  or  the  functions  of 
the  Government,  nor,  on  the  other,  producing  overgrowth  and 
waste  by  lavish  expenditure,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  deli- 
cate problems  of  modern  statesmanship.  And  this  problem  pre- 
sents itself,  every  year,  under  new  conditions.  An  adjustment 
which  is  wise  and  equitable  for  one  year  may  be  wholly  inadequate 
for  the  next. 

The  expenditures  of  the  Government  form  the  grand  level  from 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        573 

which  all  heights  and  depths  of  legislative  action  are  measured. 
The  increase  and  diminution  of  the  burdens  of  taxation  depend 
upon  their  relation  to  this  level  of  expenditures,  which  being  deter- 
mined, all  other  policies  must  conform  to  and  depend  upon  it. 

The  amount,  character,  and  methods  of  public  expenditure  form 
the  best  test  of  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  a  Government.  Nearly 
all  forms  of  official  corruption  will  show  themselves,  sooner  or  later, 
at  the  door  of  the  Treasury  in  demands  for  money. 

When,  in  outward  appearance,  the  empire  of  the  second  Napo- 
leon was  at  its  height  of  glory,  a  quiet  student  of  finance  compiled 
and  published  what  he  called  "  The  Balance  Sheet  of  the  Empire," 
which  showed  that,  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  Napoleon's 
reign,  the  expenditures  of  his  Government  had  increased  $350,000,- 
000  per  annum. 

A  large  portion  of  this  vast  sum  had  been  covered  up  by  the 
various  devices  of  book-keeping  ;  but  the  merciless  statistician 
stripped  off  the  disguise,  and  disclosed  the  inevitable  ruin  to  which 
the  empire  was  hastening.  Underneath  a  gaudy  exterior,  during 
the  whole  reign,  the  solid  foundations  of  France  were  being  honey- 
combed^through  and  through  by  the  waste  and  corruption  of  her 
finances  ;  and  when,  in  1870,  she  went  down  amid  the  smoke  and 
desolation  of  war,  it  was  only  the  culmination  of  a  disaster  already 
prepared  by  extravagant  and  corrupt  appropriations. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  extravagance  is  a  relative 
term.  At  one  period,  the  expenditure  of  a  hundred  millions  a  year 
may  be  wanton  waste  ;  while,  at  another  period,  five  hundred  mil- 
lions a  year  may  be  niggardly  and  dangerous  economy. 

What,  then,  is  the  test  by  which  the  proper  scale  of  national 
expenditure  shall  be  determined  ?  In  time  of  peace,  perhaps  the 
most  important  test  is  that  of  population.  Doubtless  the  annual 
increase  of  national  expenditures  should  bear  some  relation  to  the 
increase  of  population  ;  but  it  would  be  unphilosophical,  in  the 
highest  degree,  to  insist  that  expenditures  shall  increase  in  the  same 
ratio  as  the  population  increases.  We  know  that  population  tends 
to  increase  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  that  is,  at  a  per  cent,  compounded 
annually.  If  the  increase  of  expenditures  were  to  follow  the  same 
law,  we  might  well  look  to  the  future  with  alarm.  Judged  by  the 
test  of  population  alone,  the  total  ordinary  expenditures  of  a  grow- 
ing nation  ought  to  increase  year  by  year ;  but  the  amount  ex- 
pended per  capita  ought  not  to  increase,  but  should  rather  di- 
minish. 


574  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

In  a  nation  whose  territorial  boundaries  are  fixed,  the  increase 
of  expenditures  may  be  approximately  gauged  by  the  law  of  in- 
crease of  population  alone  ;  but  in  a  country  like  ours  the  enlarge- 
ment of  territory  and  the  extension  of  settlements  must  also  be 
taken  into  consideration. 

The  expenditures  of  the  Government,  when  the  Union  consisted 
of  but  thirteen  States,  form  no  just  basis  for  judging  of  its  proper 
expenditures  when  twenty-five  more  States  and  a  vast  territory  have 
been  added.  Under  the  influence  of  these  two  elements — increase 
of  population  and  extension  of  territory — the  amount  of  proper 
and  reasonable  expenditures  ought  to  increase  more  rapidly  than 
those  of  almost  any  other  nation.  And  our  history  confirms  this 
view. 

From  these  elements,  the  just  scale  of  increase  could  be  readily 
ascertained,  if  all  our  calculations  could  rest  upon  the  basis  of  per- 
petual peace  ;  but  war,  that  anarchic  element  which  Jeremy  Ben- 
tham  calls  "  mischief  on  the  largest  scale,"  overturns  all  ordinary 
calculations.  Long  after  the  fire  and  blood  of  battle  have  dis- 
appeared, the  destructive  power  of  war  shows  itself  with  relentless 
force  in  the  columns  which  represent  the  taxes  and  appropriations 
to  pay  its  cost. 

Far  more  than  half  of  all  the  expenditures  of  civilized  nations 
have  been  devoted  to  war  and  the  support  of  armies  and  navies. 
Prior  to  the  great  wars  against  the  first  Napoleon,  the  annual  ex- 
penditures of  Great  Britain  were  less  than  £20,000,000.  During 
the  twenty-four  years  which  elapsed  between  the  beginning  of  that 
remarkable  struggle  and  its  close,  in  1815,  at  Waterloo,  the  expendi- 
tures of  the  United  Kingdom  rose  by  successive  leaps  until,  in  one 
year,  near  the  close  of  the  war,  it  reached  £106,750,000.  The  great 
increase  of  the  British  debt,  made  necessary  by  that  war,  added 
to  the  normal  increase  of  appropriations,  rendered  it  impossible  for 
England  ever  to  return  to  her  former  scale  of  expenditures.  It 
took  twenty  years  after  Waterloo  to  reduce  the  annual  budget  from 
£77,750,000  to  £45,750,000,  which  last  sum  (the  amount  for  1835) 
was  the  smallest  Great  Britain  has  expended  in  any  year  of  the 
present  century.  During  the  forty  years  of  peace  which  followed 
Waterloo,  her  ordinary  expenses  increased  at  the  rate  of  about  four 
million  dollars  per  annum. 

The  history  of  the  expenditures  of  the  United  States  is  worthy 
of  special  study.  Omitting  payments  of  the  principal  and  interest 
of  the  public  debt,  the  annual  average  may  be  thus  summarized : 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        575 

Beginning  with  1791,  the  last  decade  of  the  last  century  showed 
an  annual  average  of  $3,750,000  ;  the  first  decade  of  the  present 
century,  about  85,500,000.  During  the  first  twenty  years  under  the 
Constitution,  the  annual  average  of  expenditures  was  a  little  more 
than  doubled.  Then  followed  four  years,  from  1812  to  1815  (both 
inclusive),  in  which  our  war  with  England  swelled  the  annual  aver- 
age to  $25,500,000.  During  the  five  years  which  succeeded  that 
war  the  annual  average  was  $16,500,000. 

The  reduction  from  the  war  level  continued  until  1823,  when 
the  new  peace  level  of  $11,500,000  was  reached,  and  the  normal  in- 
crease was  resumed.  From  1825  to  1830  the  annual  average  was 
$13,000,000  ;  from  1830  to  1835,  $17,000,000  ;  from  1835  to  1840— 
a  period  which  included  the  Seminole  war — the  average  was  $30,- 
500,000  per  annum  ;  from  1840  to  1845,  it  was  $27,000,000  ;  from 
1845  to  1850,  including  the  Mexican  war,  $40,500,000  ;  from  1850 
to  1855,  847,500,000  ;  and  from  1851  to  1861,  the  average  was  $67,- 
000,000.  This  last  may  fairly  be  called  the  peace  scale  just  before 
the  .rebellion. 

From  June  30,  1861,  to  June  30,  1866,  the  annual  average  was 
$713,750,000  ;  while  from  1866  to  1871  it  was  $189,000,000.  These 
figures,  it  must  be  remembered,  represent  the  annual  expenditures, 
exclusive  of  payments  of  the  interest  and  principal  of  the  public 
debt. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  two  forces  have  been  in 
constant  action  in  determining  the  tendency  of  appropriations  while 
the  nation  was  passing  from  war  to  peace  :  First,  the  normal  increase 
of  ordinary  expenses,  dependent  upon  increase  of  population  and 
extension  of  settled  territory  ;  and,  second,  the  decrease  caused  by 
the  payment  of  war  obligations.  The  decrease  due  to  the  latter 
cause  is  greater  immediately  after  a  war  than  the  increase  due  to 
the  former  ;  but  the  normal  increase,  being  a  constant  element,  will 
finally  overcome  the  decrease  caused  by  the  payment  of  war  debts, 
and  a  point  will  be  reached  from  which  the  annual  expenditures  will 
again  increase. 

In  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January 
23,  1872,  I  undertook  to  estimate  the  reduction  that  could  be  made 
in  our  expenditures,  and  to  forecast  the  date  at  which  a  further  re- 
duction of  the  annual  amount  would  cease.  I  venture  to  quote  a 
few  paragraphs  from  that  speech,  both  as  an  illustration  of  the  op- 
erations of  the  law  of  expenditure  and  of  the  risks  one  takes  who 
ventures  a  j>rediction  on  such  a  subject  : 


576  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Duration  of  War  Expenditures. 

Throughout  our  history  there  may  be  seen  a  curious  uniformity  in  the 
movement  of  the  annual  expenditures  for  the  years  immediately  following  a 
war.  "We  have  not  the  data  to  determine  how  long  it  was,  after  the  war  of 
independence,  before  the  expenditures  ceased  to  decrease,  that  is,  before  they 
reached  the  point  where  their  natural  growth  more  than  balanced  the  ten- 
dency to  reduction  of  war  expenditure  ;  but,  in  the  years  immediately  follow- 
ing all  our  subsequent  wars,  the  decrease  has  continued  for  a  period  almost 
exactly  twice  the  length  of  the  war  itself. 

After  the  war  of  1812-15,  the  expenditures  continued  to  decline  for  eight 
years,  reaching  the  lowest  point  in  1823. 

After  the  Seminole  war,  which  ran  through  three  years,  1836,  1837,  and 
1838,  the  new  level  was  not  reached  until  1844,  six  years  after  its  close. 

After  the  Mexican  war,  which  lasted  two  years,  it  took  four  years  (until 
1852),  to  reach  the  new  level  of  peace. 

When  will  we  reach  our  New  Level  of  Expenditures  ? 

It  is  perhaps  unsafe  to  base  our  calculations  for  the  future  on  these  analo- 
gies ;  but  the  wars  already  referred  to  have  been  of  such  varied  character, 
and  their  financial  effects  have  been  so  uniform,  as  to  make  it  not  unreason- 
able to  expect  that  a  similar  result  will  follow  our  late  war.  If  so,  the 
decrease  of  national  expenditures,  exclusive  of  the  principal  and  interest  of 
the  public  debt,  will  continue  until  1875  or  1876. 

It  will  be  seen  by  an  analysis  of  our  current  expenditures  that,  exclusive 
of  charges  on  the  public  debt,  nearly  fifty  million  dollars  are  expenditures 
directly  for  the  late  war.  Many  of  these  expenditures  will  not  appear  again, 
such  as  the  bounty  and  back  pay  of  volunteer  soldiers,  and  payment  of  illegal 
captures  of  British  vessels  and  cargoes.  We  may  reasonably  expect  that  the 
expenditures  for  pensions  will  hereafter  steadily  decrease,  unless  our  legisla- 
tion should  be  unwarrantably  extravagant.  We  may  also  expect  a  large 
decrease  in  expenditures  for  the  Internal  Revenue  Department.  Possibly  we 
may  ultimately  be  able  to  abolish  that  department  altogether.  In  the  account- 
ing and  disbursing  bureaus  of  the  Treasury  Department,  we  may  also  expect  a 
further  reduction  of  the  force  now  employed  in  settling  war  claims. 

We  can  not  expect  so  rapid  a  reduction  of  the  public  debt  and  its  burden 
of  interest  as  we  have  witnessed  for  the  last  three  years ;  but  the  reduction 
will  doubtless  continue  and  the  burden  of  interest  will  constantly  decrease. 
I  know .  it  is  not  safe  to  attempt  to  forecast  the  future ;  but  I  venture  to 
express  the  belief  that,  if  peace  continues,  the  year  1876  will  witness  our 
ordinary  expenditures  reduced  to  $125,000,000,  and  the  interest  on  our  pub- 
lic debt  to  $95,000,000 ;  making  our  total  expenditures,  exclusive  of  payment 
on  the  principal  of  the  public  debt,  $230,000,000.  Judging  from  our  own 
experience  and  from  that  of  other  nations,  we  may  not  hope,  thereafter,  to 
reach  a  lower  figure. 

Reviewing  the  subject  in  the  light  of  subsequent  experience,  it 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        577 

will  be  seen  that  the  progress  of  reduction  of  expenditures  from  the 
war  level  has  been  very  nearly  in  accordance  with  these  expecta- 
tions of  seven  years  ago. 

The  actual  expenditures  since  the  war,  including  interest  on  the 
public  debt  as  shown  by  the  official  record,  were  as  follows :  1865, 
81,297,555,224.41  ;  1866,  $520,809,416.99  ;  1867,  $357,542,675.16  ; 
1868,  $377,340,284.86  ;  1869,  $322,865,277.80  ;  1870,  $309,653,560.- 
75  ;  1871,  $292,177,188.25  ;  1872,  $277,517,962.67  ;  1873,  $290,345,- 
245.33  ;  1874,  $287,133,873.17  ;  1875,  $274,623,392.84  ;  1876,  $258,- 
459,797.33  ;  1877,  $238,660,008.93  ;  1878,  $236,964,326.80. 

Omitting  the  first  of  these  years,  in  which  the  enormous  pay- 
ments to  the  army  swelled  the  aggregate  of  expenses  to  $1,297,000,- 
000,  and  beginning  with  the  first  full  year  after  the  termination  of 
the  war,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  expenditures  have  been  reduced,  at 
first,  very  rapidly,  and  then  more  slowly,  from  $520,000,000  in 
1866,  to  about  $237,000,000  in  1878. 

The  estimate  quoted  above  was  that  in  1876  expenditures  would 
be  reduced  to  $230,000,000,  including  $95,000,000  for  interest  on 
the  public  debt.  In  1877,  one  year  later  than  the  estimated  date, 
the  actual  reduction  had  reached  $238,000,000,  including  $97,000,- 
000  for  interest  on  the  public  debt. 

It  is  evident  that  in  1877  we  had  very  nearly  reached  the  limit 
of  possible  reduction  ;  for  the  aggregate  expenditures  of  1878  show 
a  reduction  below  that  of  the  preceding  year  of  less  than  $2,000,- 
000  ;  and  the  expenditures,  actual  and  estimated,  for  the  current 
year  ending  June  30,  1879,  are  $240,000,000.  It  thus  %  appears  that 
1878  was  the  turning-point  from  which,  under  the  influence  of  the 
elements  of  normal  growth,  we  may  expect  a  constant  though,  it 
ought  to  be,  a  small  annual  increase  of  expenditures. 

But,  if  the  appropriations  for  1880,  most  of  which  have  already 
been  made,  are  to  be  taken  as  an  index  of  the  future  policy  to  be 
pursued  by  Congress,  we  are  to  see  a  sudden,  capricious,  and  dan- 
gerously large  increase. 

It  has  been  a  slow  and  difficult  work  to  force  down  the  scale  of 
expenditures  made  necessary  by  the  war.  Even  as  late  as  1874, 
more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  all  the  payments  over  the  national 
counter  were  made  to  meet  war  debts.  Besides  these  payments  a 
large  increase  of  ordinary  expenses  was  made  necessary  by  the  war. 
From  1860  to  1865,  the  harbors,  lighthouses,  and  other  public  works 
in  the  States  that  went  into  rebellion,  were  of  course  wholly  neg- 
lected by  the  national  Government.     To   restore,  preserve,  and 


578  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

place  them  again  in  a  state  of  efficiency,  has  required  unusually- 
large  expenditures  since  the  war. 

Several  new  bureaus,  such  as  that  for  assessing  and  collecting 
internal  revenue,  and  that  for  engraving  and  printing  the  public 
securities,  have  been  created  ;  and  a  large  increase  of  force  in  the 
several  executive  departments  has  been  made  necessary,  to  enable 
the  Government  to  audit  the  accounts  and  disburse  the  vast  pay- 
ments made  necessary  by  the  war. 

Methods  of  appropriating  Hevenue. 

In  its  relation  to  good  government,  the  amount  of  expenditure 
authorized  by  law  is  not  so  important  as  the  methods  adopted  by 
Congress  for  regulating  the  appropriation  and  disbursement  of 
revenues.  In  the  early  history  of  the  Government  all  appropria- 
tions for  the  year  were  made  in  one  bill,  and  in  gross  sums,  to  be 
expended  by  the  several  executive  departments.  Though  the  num- 
ber of  leading  officers  in  each  department  was  fixed  by  general 
statute,  yet  large  discretion  was  given  to  the  heads  of  departments 
both  in  reference  to  the  number  of  subordinates  to  be  employed 
and  to  the  special  items  of  expenditure. 

In  his  annual  message  of  December  8,  1801,  Mr.  Jefferson  called 
attention  to  the  careless  methods  of  appropriation  which  had  been 
adopted  by  Congress,  mentioning  the  fact  that  many  clerks  were 
employed  and  their  salaries  fixed  at  the  discretion  of  the  executive 
departments  ;  and  he  urged  upon  Congress  "  the  expediency  of 
regulating  that  power  by  law,  so  as  to  subject  its  exercise  to  legis- 
lative inspection  and  sanction."  In  the  following  paragraph  of 
that  message,  the  necessity  of  Congressional  control  and  limitation 
of  appropriations,  both  as  to  amount  and  object,  is  admirably  stated  : 

It  would  be  prudent  to  multiply  barriers  against  their  dissipation,  by  ap- 
propriating specific  sums  to  every  specific  purpose  susceptible  of  definition ; 
by  disallowing  all  applications  of  money  varying  from  the  appropriation  in 
object,  or  transcending  it  in  amount;  by  reducing  the  undefined  field  of  con- 
tingencies, and  thereby  circumscribing  discretionary  powers  over  money; 
and  by  bringing  back  to  a  single  department  all  accountabilities  for  money, 
where  the  examinations  may  be  prompt,  efficacious,  and  uniform. 

These  wise  suggestions  were  not  adopted  by  Congress  at  that 
time,  and  the  loose  method  of  appropriating  in  bulk  was  continued 
for  many  years. 

Until  a  recent  date,  Congress  frequently  empowered  the  Presi- 
dent to  order  transfers  of  appropriations  from  one  branch  of  the 


APPROPRIATION'S  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        579 

service  to  another.  But  this  power  was  usually  conferred  for  a 
limited  time  only.  Occasionally  a  special  bill  was  passed,  making 
appropriations  for  a  particular  branch  of  the  service  ;  but  in  the 
main,  during  the  first  forty  years  of  our  history,  the  appropriations 
were  made  in  one  act,  entitled  "An  act  making  appropriations 
for  the  support  of  the  Government." 

In  1823  the  appropriations  for  fortifications  were  placed  in  a 
separate  bill.  In  1826  the  appropriations  for  pensions  were  made 
in  a  separate  bill.  The  first  separate  act  for  rivers  and  harbors  ap- 
peared in  1828,  and  in  1844  the  post-office  and  deficiency  bills  were 
first  passed  as  separate  acts. 

In  1847  the  appropriations  were  made  in  nine  separate  bills  : 
Pensions,  Fortifications,  Indians,  Military  Academy,  Army,  Navy, 
Post-Office,  Civil  and  Diplomatic,  and  Deficiencies. 

In  1856  the  consular  and  diplomatic  appropriations  were  em- 
bodied in  a  separate  bill.  In  1857  the  Legislative,  Executive,  and 
Judicial  Bill  first  appeared  in  the  form  which  is  still  maintained. 

In  1862  a  new  bill  was  added,  which  has  since  been  known  as 
the  Sundry  Civil  Bill,  containing  the  various  miscellaneous  items 
not  embraced  in  the  other  bills.  Since  1862  there  have  been  twelve 
regular  annual  appropriation  bills,  as  follows  :  Pensions,  Legislative, 
Executive  and  Judicial,  Consular  and  Diplomatic,  Army,  Navy, 
Military  Academy,  Post-Office,  Fortifications,  Indian,  Sundry  Civil, 
Deficiency,  and  Rivers  and  Harbors. 

*  In  addition  to  these  are  the  various  relief  acts  making  special 
appropriations.  There  is  also  a  class  of  permanent  appropriations, 
authorized  by  general  statute,  which  do  not  appear  in  the  annual 
bills — such  as  payments  of  interest  on  the  public  debt  and  pay- 
ments on  account  of  the  sinking  fund. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that,  on  the  whole,  there  has 
been  an  increasing  tendency  to  limit  the  discretion  of  the  execu- 
tive departments  and  bring  the  details  of  expenditure  more  imme- 
diately under  the  annual  supervision  of  Congress  ;  and  this  ten- 
dency has  been  specially  manifest  since  the  late  war. 

As  all  the  regular  appropriation  bills  originate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  the  chief  responsibility  for  the  amounts  authorized 
and  for  the  measures  adopted  to  regulate  and  restrict  the  uses  to 
which  the  revenues  may  be  applied,  rests  with  that  body 

Republican  and  Democratic  Appropriations. 
During  the  last  four  years  the  Democratic  party  has  had  control 


580  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

of  legislation  in  the  House  ;  and  a  comparison  of  their  manage- 
ment of  this  subject  with  the  Republican  management  which  pre- 
ceded will  not  be  without  interest. 

Much  credit  is  deservedly  due  to  the  Democrats  in  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress  for  continuing  the  work  of  reduction  which  had 
been  carried  on  by  their  Republican  predecessors  from  1865  down 
to  and  including  the  passage  of  the  appropriation  bills  for  the  fiscal 
year  ending  June  30,  1876.  On  some  subjects  of  reduction  they 
could  act  more  effectively  and  with  less  embarrassment  than  their 
Republican  predecessors.  They  were  less  restrained  by  party  asso- 
ciations from  reducing  the  official  force  in  the  departments. 

The  aggregate  reduction  of  expenditures  made  by  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress  for  the  fiscal  years  1877  and  1878  was  $20,000,000. 
This  includes  all  the  reductions  made  by  the  executive  depart- 
ments, as  well  as  those  made  by  Congress.  An  apparent  though 
not  a  real  reduction  of  $1,500,000  was  made  by  a  change  in  the  law 
relating  to  official  postage-stamps.  The  last  Republican  House 
appropriated  that  sum  for  official  postage  for  the  several  execu- 
tive departments,  charging  the  amount  to  the  departments  as  an 
expenditure,  and  crediting  the  Post-Office  Department  with  the 
face-value  of  the  stamps.  This  exhibited  the  whole  transaction  on 
one  side  of  the  ledger  as  revenue,  and  on  the  other  as  expenditure. 
The  Forty-fourth  Congress  repealed  that  law,  and  authorized  the 
departments  to  make  requisitions  upon  the  Postmaster-General  for 
stamps,  thus  making  an  apparent  reduction  of  $1,500,000,  without 
changing  the  actual  facts  in  the  case. 

But  the  progress  made  in  the  direction  of  economy  by  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress  was  far  more  than  neutralized  by  the  action  of  the 
last  Congress.  This  will  appear  from  a  statement  of  the  appropria- 
tions made  during  each  of  the  four  years  of  Democratic  rule  in  the 
House.  Omitting  permanent  appropriations,  which  do  not  appear 
in  the  annual  bills,  the  appropriations  voted  during  the  last  four 
years  were  as  follows  : 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1877 $124,122,010 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1878 114,069,483  * 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1879 146,304,309 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1880 161,808,934 

To  this  last  amount  should  be  added  $16,500,000,  authorized  by 
law  at  the  last  session  but  yet  to  be  appropriated,  to  pay  the  arrears 

*  No  appropriations  for  rivers  and  harbors  were  made  for  this  year. 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        581 

of  pensions,  which  will  swell  the  amount  of  the  appropriations  au- 
thorized for  the  next  fiscal  year  to  $178,300,000.  Even  this  large 
amount  must  be  further  increased  by  the  deficiencies  which  will  be 
required  for  that  year.  The  appropriations  authorized  at  the  last 
session,  not  including  these  deficiencies,  exceed  by  $54,000,000  the 
amount  voted  at  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  and 
considerably  exceed  those  of  any  year  since  1869.  Of  course,  the 
arrears  of  pensions,  which  are  estimated  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  amount  to  $41,500,000,  will  not  appear  in  the  yearly 
expenditure  hereafter ;  but  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  estimates 
that  the  application  of  this  law  to  all  new  pensions  hereafter  al- 
lowed will  increase  the  annual  pension  bill  four  or  five  millions 
each  year  for  some  years  to  come. 

As  I  have  already  shown,  it  would  not  have  been  reasonable  to 
expect  that  the  last  Congress  could  continue  to  make  reductions  in 
the  aggregate  expenditures  ;  but  the  increased  amounts  which  have 
been  authorized  greatly  exceed  the  limits  of  just  economy. 

In  striking  contrast  with  this  increase  of  expenditures  by  Con- 
gress is  the  remarkable  reduction  of  annual  expenditures  effected 
by  the  refunding  operations  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Since 
the  first  day  of  March,  1877,  the  Secretary  has  sold  four  per  cent, 
bonds  and  four  per  cent,  certificates  to  the  amount  of  $803,095,700, 
and  has  redeemed  and  canceled  a  like  amount  of  six  per  cent,  and 
five  per  cent,  bonds,  thereby  reducing  the  annual  coin  interest  on 
the  public  debt  by  the  sum  of  $13,638,651.  This  reduction  was 
made  possible  by  the  legislation  which  brought  resumption  of  specie 
payments,  and  has  greatly  strengthened  the  public  credit  at  home 
and  abroad. 

Important  as  are  the  amounts  expended  for  the  public  service, 
the  legislative  methods  of  making  and  regulating  appropriations 
are  perhaps  even  more  important.  I  shall  notice  some  of  these, 
and  also  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to  reform  them. 

Permanent  and  Indefinite  Appropriations. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Government  there  has  been  a  ten- 
dency on  the  part  of  Congress  to  neglect  that  clause  of  the  Con- 
stitution which  declares  that  no  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the 
Treasury  but  in  consequence  of  appropriations  made  by  law.  This 
provision  has  been  evaded  by  appropriating,  for  a  given  object,  so 
much  money  as  may  be  necessary,  leaving  the  amount  indefinite, 
and  to  be  determined  by  the  discretion  of  the  executive  depart- 
vol.  cxxvin. — no.  271.  38 


582  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

ments.  It  was  possibly  not  the  purpose  of  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution to  compel  Congress  to  act  annually  on  all  necessary  appro- 
priations. The  only  express  limit  in  this  direction  was  placed  upon 
appropriations  to  raise  and  support  armies,  which  should  not  be  for 
a  period  longer  than  two  years.  As  early  as  April  25,  1808,  Con- 
gress passed  an  act  appropriating  an  annual  sum  of  $200,000  to 
provide  arms  and  military  equipment  for  the  militia  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  this  law  has  been  the  only  authority  for  the  expendi- 
tures which  have  been  made  annually  on  that  account  ever  since. 
If  one  appropriation  may  be  made  to  run  for  seventy  years  without 
the  supervision  of  Congress,  the  same  method  might  be  applied  to 
all  other  appropriations  except  those  for  the  army.  The  general 
rule  of  good  government  requires  Congress  annually  to  supervise 
all  its  appropriations.  One  exception  is  properly  made  to  this  rule. 
The  payment  of  the  interest  on  the  public  debt  is  made  in  pursu- 
ance of  a  permanent  appropriation,  in  order  that  the  public  credit 
may  not  suffer  from  the  neglect  of  Congress  to  make  provision 
promptly,  each  year,  for  this  class  of  obligations. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  it  was  found  that  more  than  one  half 
of  all  our  expenditures  were  authorized  by  general  and  permanent 
laws,  and  did  not  come  under  the  annual  scrutiny  of  Congress. 
Prior  to  the  act  of  March  3, 1849,  the  expenses  of  collecting  the  rev- 
enue from  customs  were  paid  out  of  the  gross  receipts,  and  only  the 
balance  was  paid  into  the  Treasury.  The  act  of  1849  was  intended 
to  correct  this  vicious  method,  which  offered  so  many  opportunities 
for  abuse.  It  required  the  gross  receipts  from  customs  to  be  paid 
into  the  Treasury,  and  estimates  to  be  submitted  to  Congress  for 
the  expense  of  collecting  the  revenues.  By  the  act  of  June  14, 
1858,  a  backward  step  was  taken.  A  permanent  semi-annual  appro- 
priation of  $1,800,000  was  authorized,  and  authority  was  given  to 
collectors  to  apply  certain  customs  fees  directly  to  pay  the  cost  of 
collection.  This  unwise  method  of  appropriation  still  continues ; 
but  since  1861  Congress  has  placed  many  restrictions  upon  the  dis- 
cretion of  collectors  and  other  customs  officers,  by  regulating  the 
number  and  salaries  of  employees. 

The  Internal  Revenue  Bureau,  established  in  1862,  has  been  sup- 
ported by  annual  appropriations  made  on  detailed  estimates,  pre- 
sented to  Congress  in  the  regular  way. 

Prior  to  the  passage  of  the  act  of  June  24,  1874,  the  expenses 
of  the  issuing,  reissuing,  transferring,  redemption,  and  destruction 
of  securities  of  the  United  States  were  paid  from  the  permanent 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        583 

appropriation  of  one  per  cent,  of  all  securities  issued  during  each 
fiscal  year.  Some  years  these  expenditures  amounted  to  $3,000,000, 
no  part  of  which  came  under  the  previous  scrutiny  of  Congress. 
By  the  act  of  June  20,  1874,  all  appropriations  for  that  service  were 
placed  in  the  annual  bills  on  regular  estimates  sent  to  Congress. 

Under  the  act  of  March  31,  1849,  an  indefinite  appropriation 
was  made  to  pay  for  horses,  vessels,  and  other  property  lost  in  the 
military  service  under  impressment  or  contract  ;  and  large  sums 
have  been  expended  which  do  not  appear  in  the  annual  bills.  By 
the  act  of  July  12,  1870,  Congress  attempted  to  repeal  these  per- 
manent appropriations  and  require  estimates  to  be  submitted  for 
them ;  but  the  old  law  appears  by  some  blunder  to  have  been  re- 
enacted  in  the  revised  statutes. 

The  Abuse  of  Unexpended  Balances. 

Prior  to  1872,  an  appropriation  once  authorized  by  Congress 
remained  on  the  books  of  the  Treasury  as  a  continuous  appropri- 
ation subject  to  be  drawn  upon  at  any  time.  The  result  was,  that 
the  unexpended  balances  of  one  year  could  be  drawn  against  for 
subsequent  years  ;  and  these  balances  so  accumulated  in  all  the 
bureaus  and  departments  that  in  the  course  of  years  they  consti- 
tuted a  large  and  forgotten  fund  which  could  be  used  for  a  great 
variety  of  purposes  without  the  special  notice  of  Congress.  In  a 
single  bureau  it  was  found  that  the  unexpended  balances — the  ac- 
cumulations of  a  quarter  of  a  century — amounted,  in  1870,  to  $36,- 
000,000. 

By  a  provision  of  law,  offered  by  Mr.  Dawes,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations,  and  approved  July  12,  1870,  it  was 
enacted  that  all  balances  of  appropriations  contained  in  the  annual 
bills,  and  made  specifically  for  the  service  of  any  fiscal  year,  and 
remaining  unexpended  at  its  close,  shall  be  applied  only  to  the  pay- 
ment of  expenses  incurred  during  that  year,  or  to  the  fulfillment 
of  contracts  properly  made  within  that  year.  And  balances  not 
needed  for  such  purposes  shall  be  carried  to  the  surplus  fund,  and 
at  the  end  of  two  years  from  the  date  of  the  law  by  which  they 
were  authorized  shall  be  covered  into  the  Treasury.  In  carrying 
this  law  into  effect,  two  years  afterward,  over  $174,000,000  of  ac- 
cumulated unexpended  balances  were  covered  into  the  Treasury  at 
one  time  ;  and  the  temptation  to  extravagance,  which  this  great 
fund  had  offered,  was  removed.  By  an  act  of  June  20,  1874,  the 
law  was  made  still  more  stringent,  and  the  old  abuses  which  grew 


584  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

out  of  unexpended  balances  may  be  said  to  have  been  wholly  sup- 
pressed. 

In  the  same  connection  should  be  noticed  a  legislative  device 
which  has  often  been  resorted  to  to  cover  up  the  actual  amount  of 
appropriations,  under  clauses  which  unexpended  balances  are  reap- 
propriated  without  specifying  the  amount.  The  act  of  1870  greatly 
reduced  the  scope  of  this  pernicious  habit.  But  indefinite  reappro- 
priations  by  Congress  of  balances  which,  under  the  law  of  1870 
and  1874,  can  not  be  used  without  renewed  authority,  have  recently 
reappeared  in  our  annual  bills.  The  just  and  safe  method  is  to 
appropriate  specifically  the  expenditures  which  Congress  is  willing 
to  authorize,  so  that  the  law  shall  itself  show,  as  far  as  possible, 
both  the  object  and  the  full  amount  of  the  appropriation. 

Deficiencies. 

One  of  the  vicious  party  devices  too  often  resorted  to  for  avoid- 
ing responsibility  for  extravagance  in  appropriations  is  to  cut  down 
the  annual  bills  below  the  actual  amount  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
Government,  announce  to  the  country  that  a  great  reduction  has 
been  made  in  the  interest  of  economy,  and,  after  the  elections  are 
over,  make  up  the  necessary  amounts  by  deficiency  bills.  This 
device  has  not  been  confined  to  any  one  party  ;  for  it  requires  not 
a  little  courage  to  make  increased  appropriations  just  before  a  Con- 
gressional election.  But  it  is  due  to  the  Republican  party  to  say 
that,  during  the  last  few  years  of  their  control  in  the  House,  the 
deficiency  bills  were  smaller  in  the  amounts  appropriated  than  in  any 
recent  period  of  our  history,  having  been  reduced  to  $4,000,000  for 
the  fiscal  year  1875,  $2,387,000  for  the  year  1876,  and  $834,000  for 
1877 — the  last  year  for  which  the  Republicans  made  the  appro- 
priations. This  last  sum  was  the  smallest  amount  of  deficiency  in 
any  year  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

In  contrast  with  this  statement  is  the  fact  that  in  the  first  year, 
for  which  the  Democratic  House  managed  the  appropriations,  the 
deficiencies  were  $2,500,000  ;  the  second  year,  $15,213,000  ;  and  for 
the  third  (the  current  fiscal  year),  $3,500,000  of  deficiencies  have 
already  been  appropriated ;  and  a  large  deficiency  must  yet  be  pro- 
vided for. 

Contingent  Funds. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to  specify 
and  limit  the  objects  of  appropriations,  the  custom  prevailed  until 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  MISAPPROPRIATIONS.        585 

1874  of  appropriating  considerable  sums  to  each  department  under 
the  head  of  "  contingent  expenses,"  the- disbursement  of  which  was 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  heads  of  bureaus  and  executive  depart- 
ments. But  in  one  of  the  annual  bills  of  1874  all  these  appropri- 
ations were  carefully  classified ;  and  definite  amounts  were  granted 
for  different  specific  purposes,  so  that  the  sums  left  to  be  ex- 
pended at  the  discretion  of  bureaus  of  departments  were  greatly 
reduced.  This  practice  has  since  been  followed  in  making  up  the 
annual  bills. 

Recent  Examples  of  Bad  Legislation. 

In  further  illustration  of  reckless  methods  of  appropriation,  I 
cite  two  items  in  the  legislation  of  Congress,  at  the  last  session. 
By  the  act  of  July  19, 1848,  three  months'  extra  pay  was  granted  to 
the  officers  and  soldiers  of  our  volunteer  army  who  were  engaged 
in  the  war  with  Mexico,  the  purpose  of  the  act  being  to  pay  each 
such  soldier,  on  his  discharge  from  the  army,  a  sum  necessary 
to  cover  the  time  that  it  would  be  likely  to  take  him  to  return 
home  and  secure  employment.  About  $50,000  of  this  extra  pay 
is  still  due,  and  a  bill  was  introduced  to  appropriate  a  sufficient 
amount  of  money  to  complete  the  payment.  An  amendment  was 
added  to  the  bill,  which  so  enlarged  the  provisions  of  the  original 
act  of  1848  as  to  grant  three  months'  extra  pay  to  all  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  regular  army,  and  all  officers,  petty  officers,  seamen 
and  marines  of  the  navy  and  revenue  marine  service,  who  were,  at 
any  time,  employed  in  the  prosecution  of  the  Mexican  war.  This 
gratuity  had  never  been  asked  for,  and  the  provision  probably 
passed  without  much  notice  of  its  real  character.  As  estimated  by 
the  accounting  officers  of  the  Treasury  Department,  the  amount 
appropriated  by  this  act,  thus  enlarged,  is  three  and  a  half  million 
dollars,  while  the  sum  actually  due  was  only  $50,000. 

The  other  instance  marks  the  introduction  of  a  still  more  dan- 
gerous kind  of  legislation.  A  bill  was  passed  on  the  last  day  of 
the  late  session,  creating  an  irredeemable  debt  of  $250,000,  the 
annual  interest  of  which  is  to  be  paid  to  the  trustees  of  a  "Print- 
ing House  for  the  Blind,"  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  an  establishment 
chartered  by  the  State  of  Kentucky.  The  act  puts  the  appropria- 
tion in  the  form  of  a  national  obligation,  which  cannot  be  repealed 
without  the  repudiation  of  a  portion  of  the  public  debt. 

General  Legislation  on  Appropriation  Bills. 
Perhaps  the  most  reprehensible  method  connected  with  appro- 


586  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

priation  bills  has  resulted  from  a  change  of  one  of  the  rules  of  the 
House,  made  in  1876,  by  which  any  general  legislation  germane  to 
a  bill  may  be  in  order  if  it  retrenches  expenditures.  The  construc- 
tion recently  given  to  this  amended  rule  has  resulted  in  putting  a 
great  mass  of  general  legislation  upon  the  appropriation  bills,  and 
has  so  overloaded  the  committee  in  charge  of  them  as  to  render  it 
quite  impossible  for  its  members  to  devote  sufficient  attention  to 
the  details  of  the  appropriations  proper.  If  this  rule  be  continued 
in  force,  it  will  be  likely  to  break  down  the  Committee  on  Appro- 
priations, and  disperse  the  annual  bills  to  several  committees,  so 
that  the  legislation  on  that  subject  will  not  be  managed  by  any  one 
committee,  nor  in  accordance  with  any  general  and  comprehensive 
plan. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  that  one  strong,  intelligent  commit- 
tee should  have  supervision  of  the  whole  work  of  drafting  and  put- 
ting in  shape  the  bills  for  the  appropriation  of  public  money.  That 
committee  ought,  every  year,  to  present  to  Congress  and  the  coun- 
try a  general  and  connected  view  of  what  we  may  fairly  call  our 
budget,  showing  not  only  the  aggregate  of  expenditures,  but  the 
general  distribution  of  revenue  to  the  several  objects  to  be  sup- 
ported. To  accomplish  this  work  thoroughly  and  comprehensively 
is  all  that  any  one  committee  can  do  ;  and  any  attempt  to  load 
general  legislation  upon  their  bills  will  be  disastrous  not  only  to 
general  legislation,  by  making  it  fragmentary  and  incomplete,  but 
especially  so  to  the  proper  management  of  our  fiscal  affairs.  This 
unwise  rule  furnished  the  temptation  to  the  Democratic  caucus  to 
tack  upon  the  two  appropriation  bills  which  failed  at  the  last  ses- 
sion of  Congress  the  political  legislation  which  has  caused  the  extra 
session,  and  has  done  more  to  revive  the  unfortunate  memories  of 
the  rebellion  than  any  political  event  of  the  last  ten  years. 

The  true  policy  is  to  separate  all  financial  questions  as  far  as 
possible  from  mere  partisan  politics,  and  bring  to  their  discussion 
and  management  the  best  intelligence  of  all  parties. 

James  A.  Garfield. 


IIL 

THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE. 


The  nations  of  the  world  are  suffering  severe  commercial  de- 
pression. The  public  press  in  many  countries  abounds  with  unceas- 
ing comments  on  this  painful  fact.  Public  men  of  every  kind, 
economical  writers,  and  men  engaged  in  industry,  ardently  discuss 
its  nature  and  its  consequences.  The  charitable  come  forward  to 
relieve  the  sufferings  which  it  creates,  and  plunge  into  discussions 
on  the  nature  and  fitting  limits  of  beneficent  charity.  Writers  of 
great  power  debate  the  causes  and  the  presumptive  remedies  of  this 
depression.  Heavy  reductions  of  wages  are  demanded  by  employ- 
ers who  have  lost  all  profit,  amid  a  war  of  strikes,  in  the  name  of 
the  stagnation  of  business.  The  workmen  retort  that  they  are  vic- 
tims of  the  oppression  of  capitalists.  Traders,  under  the  impulse 
of  severe  losses  and  the  agitations  of  despair,  challenge  the  con- 
victions of  their  reason,  and,  abandoning  reflection  and  judgment, 
seek  help  from  the  delusive  follies  of  protection.  A  kind  of  chaos 
seems  to  have  come  over  the  minds  of  mankind  in  this  very  grave 
matter. 

Amid  these  sufferings  and  these  anxieties — spread  over  so  many 
countries — one  fact  presents  itself  which  is  calculated  to  excite  sur- 
prise. The  depression  has  gone  on  and  has  been  keenly  discussed 
for  years,  yet  its  true  nature  and  the  real  cause  which  has  generated 
it  do  not  yet  seem  to  have  been  recognized.  Every  kind  of  expla- 
nation is  given  of  it.  It  is  made  to  be  the  offspring  of  multitudi- 
nous causes  ;  nevertheless,  a  clear  perception  of  its  true  character, 
and  of  what  has  brought  it  to  pass,  is  still  wanting.  Even  cham- 
bers of  commerce,  filled  with  men  of  the  highest  commercial  abil- 
ity, appear  to  have  some,  if  not  theory,  at  least  special  view,  of 
their  own.  Statesmen,  too,  speak  of  it  as  a  subject  which  they  do 
not  understand.  Not,  indeed,  that  the  right  explanation  is  abso- 
lutely wanting — in  some  quarters  it  has   been   distinctly  pointed 


588  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

out — but  it  has  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  a  publicly  recognized 
fact.  Yet  to  know  what  this  fearful  commercial  depression  means, 
and  what  brought  it  into  existence,  are  matters  of  supreme  im- 
portance for  warning  and  for  cure.  There  are  misdoings  on  which 
responsibility  for  the  calamity  mainly  lies,  and  there  are  mistaken 
practices  to  be  shunned,  and  right  action  to  be  adopted,  to  bring 
the  suffering  to  the  earliest  practicable  end. 

What,  then,  is  commercial  depression  ?  Want  of  buyers.  And 
how  come  buyers  to  be  few  and  weak  ?  Because  there  is  an  im- 
mense diminution  of  the  means  of  purchasing.  And  in  what  does  the 
power  of  buying  consist  ?  In  goods  to  give  in  exchange — with  the 
exception  of  a  relatively  small  amount  of  articles  previously  made, 
in  commodities  produced  for  the  very  purpose  of  being  exchanged 
with  one  another.  This  is  the  one  characteristic  peculiarity  of  the 
economical  life  of  man.  Particular  goods,  needed  by  the  whole 
community,  are  made  by  special  makers,  and  they  are  distributed  to 
those  who  require  them  for  use,  that  is,  to  consumers,  by  the  makers 
obtaining  from  each  other  what  they  want  for  their  own  needs. 
The  baker  makes  bread  for  the  town,  and  he  gets  from  the  hat- 
ter, the  grocer,  the  tailor,  the  supply  of  his  wants.  When  the  va- 
rious producers  are  fairly  occupied  with  their  several  industries, 
many  exchanges  are  carried  out,  much  buying  and  selling  takes 
place,  and  trade  is  said  to  be  prosperous.  Commercial  depression 
is  the  exact  reverse.  It  is  stagnant  trade — trade  paralyzed,  and 
mills  and  factories  work  on  a  smaller  scale  or  are  closed,  banks 
and  commercial  firms  break,  wages  are  lowered,  workmen  and  their 
families  are  reduced  to  destitution.  All  this  misery  comes  from  a 
single  cause  :  there  are  fewer  goods  to  buy  with,  less  wealth  to  be 
exchanged,  diminished  supplies  of  food,  capital,  clothing,  and  raw 
materials  wherewith  to  keep  laborers  at  work.  They  are  unable  to 
maintain  the  full  production  of  those  commodities  which  society 
requires.  In  other  words,  simply  and  plainly,  commercial  depres- 
sion is  poverty — poverty  among  consumers  and  would-be  buyers. 
This  poverty  first  springs  up  among  those  who  have  been  deprived 
of  the  ordinary  products  of  their  industry,  and  then  it  passes  on  to 
sellers  who  find  that  buyers  fail  them  from  lack  of  means  wherewith 
to  buy,  lack  of  goods  to  give  in  exchange. 

Mere  truisms  these,  we  shall  be  told  ;  what  help  can  they  bring  ? 
The  knowledge,  be  it  answered,  of  the  malady  from  which  the 
world  is  now  suffering,  of  the  cure  to  be  adopted,  and  of  the  bad 
practices  to  be  avoided  in  the  future.     They  are  every-day  truths, 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.       589 

no  doubt,  but  such  common  truths  are  emphatically  the  strength  of 
political  economy,  and  of  the  proper  conduct  of  business.  The 
practices  which  they  speak  of,  known  as  they  are  to  all,  are  the 
very  things  which  occur  to  no  one  when  unusual  pressure  steps 
in,  and  are  the  very  forces  which  make  nations  rich  or  poor. 
They  reveal  the  essence  of  all  industry  and  of  all  trade,  common 
and  obvious  though  they  be.  At  the  present  moment  they  give 
rise  to  the  critical  question,  How  has  it  come  to  pass  that  the 
goods  wherewith  to  buy  have  become  so  few  ? 

Diverse  answers  are  given  to  this  question,  which  are  not  tru- 
isms— very  far  from  it — especially  when  they  fall  from  the  lips  of 
traders.  "  There  is  no  money  to  buy  with,"  exclaim  shopkeepers  ; 
but  such  an  answer  does  not  throw  the  faintest  light  on  the  dark 
problem.  Nations  are  not  made  poor,  nor  their  mines  and  factories 
shut  up,  nor  emigrant  laborers  driven  back  to  their  old  homes,  be- 
cause gold  and  pieces  of  paper  are  in  one  place  rather  than  in  an- 
other. Money,  whatever  be  included  under  the  term,  is  a  mere 
tool,  absolutely  nothing  else.  It  renders  no  other  service  to  man- 
kind than  to  place  property  in  different  hands  ;  it  does  not  add  to 
or  diminish  commodities.  As  well  explain  the  badness  of  the  wheat 
crop  by  talking  of  the  farmer's  carts.  Whether  a  country  is  pros- 
perous or  depressed,  the  quantity  of  money  contained  in  it  varies 
by  very  trifling  amounts.  The  means  with  which  every  man  buys 
are  his  income,  and  incomes,  be  they  rent,  profits,  wages,  or  divi- 
dends, are  nothing  else  but  the  share  each  man  obtains  of  the  com- 
modities produced.  These  shares  may  become  much  larger  or 
much  smaller  by  the  common  stock  from  which  they  are  taken 
being  increased  or  diminished,  and  yet  no  change  will  have  taken 
place  in  the  quantity  of  coin  in  the  country. 

Money,  then,  reveals  nothing  which  will  help  us  to  understand 
the  causes  of  the  commercial  depression.  A  far  more  favorite 
explanation  is  found  in  the  phrase  "over-production."  It  seems 
supported  by  such  visible  evidence.  Vast  stocks  are  piled  up  at 
mines  and  factories  waiting  for  buyers,  but  none  come.  Merchan- 
dise is  offered  in  every  market  all  over  the  world,  but  no  orders  for 
shipment  arrive.  Production,  people  say,  has  been  overdone;  the 
natural  wants  of  consumers  have  been  grossly  exceeded  by  specu- 
lative manufacturers;  can  any  one  wonder  that  purchasers  can  not 
overtake  them  ?  That  there  is  over-production  now  going  on,  with 
much  harm  to  traders,  is  an  undeniable  fact.  The  existence  of  the 
excessive  stocks  and  the  dismissals  of  workmen  are  proofs  of  over- 


590  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

making  which  can  not  be  gainsaid.  How  this  over-production  has 
been  brought  about  will  be  explained  presently.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
not  the  cause  of  the  commercial  depression;  it  is  the  second  stage 
of  the  disease,  not  the  first. 

It  is  a  common  occurrence  that  particular  markets  should  be 
brought  under  severe  reduction  of  prices  and  difficulty  of  sales  by 
an  over-supply  of  commodities;  but  this  over-supply  is  local,  tem- 
porary, and  speculative.  It  tends  rapidly  to  cure  itself.  Mer- 
chants and  producers,  with  heedless  eagerness,  have  taken  an  exag- 
gerated view  of  the  capacity  of  a  particular  market  to  dispose  of  a 
large  amount  of  their  goods.  They  make  ventures,  which  are  essen- 
tially experiments  whether  the  market  will  take  off  the  wares  haz- 
arded. Such  miscalculations  were  frequent  in  the  colonial  trade 
when  the  colonies  were  smaller,  and  the  steamboat  and  the  telegraph 
had  not  yet  come  forward  to  reveal  the  true  state  of  the  markets. 
But  these  miscalculations  speedily  cure  themselves.  Traders  are 
not  permanent  gamblers,  and  this  kind  of  over-production  soon 
reckons  up  its  losses  and  ceases. 

The  depression  which  now  weighs  upon  the  world  exhibits  fea- 
tures of  a*  different  kind.  Its  distinguishing  characteristic  is  that  it 
sweeps  over  many  countries.  It  presses,  so  to  speak,  on  the  whole 
civilized  world.  It  is  easily  conceivable  that  England  should  have 
produced  more  goods  than  China  could  buy  under  her  circumstances, 
or  India,  or  America,  or  Russia.  She  may  have  reckoned  on  the 
ordinary  demand  from  one  of  these  countries;  it  may  have  failed 
her  through  causes  peculiar  to  each  case,  and  then  her  goods  may 
have  found  no  buyers.  The  consequences  to  some  may  have  been 
painful — factories  for  a  while  over-stocked,  and  makers  and  men 
involved  in  temporary  trouble.  But  general  over-production,  ex- 
tending over  many  countries  simultaneously,  is  a  totally  different 
matter;  it  can  not  be  regarded  as  possible.  The  world  is  far  short, 
as  yet,  of  that  stage  when  there  is  already  wealth  enough — when  no 
one  desires  to  have  more  enjoyments,  and  when  he  will  make  no 
industrial  effort  to  obtain  them.  The  maximum  of  necessaries  and 
gratifications  has  not  yet  been  reached  by  mankind.  The  reverse  is 
true — millions  of  men  and  women  have  not  enough  to  consume. 
They  want  more  and  work  for  more,  and  this  means  that  by  pro- 
ducing more  there  is  more  trade,  and  that  all  are  better  off.  This 
increased  production  moves  upon  the  old  lines.  Each  branch  of  in- 
dustry furnishes  more  goods,  and  these  can  be  sold  easily,  because 
each  producer  has  a  larger  supply  of  his  own  products  wherewith 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.       591 

to  purchase  those  of  others.  Great  production  on  every  side  can 
not  imply  scarcity  of  purchasing  power  and  of  buyers,  but  the  di- 
rect contrary.  The  continuance  of  production  after  the  means  of 
buying  have  disappeared  may  easily  become  excessive,  and  generate 
mischievous  effects;  but  that  excess  will  be  the  offspring  of  under- 
production in  some  quarter  which  has  suspended  its  ability  to  trade. 

We  thus  arrive  at  over-consumption,  that  is,  the  consuming  and 
destroying  more  wealth  than  is  made,  as  the  true  explanation  of 
that  commercial  depression  which  may  be  termed  universal.  Sub- 
sequent partial  over-production  has  aggravated  it,  but  was  not  its 
original  parent.  It  thus  becomes  a  matter  of  surpassing  interest 
to  inquire,  if  possible,  what  are  the  causes  which  have  brought  the 
world  into  this  condition.  How  has  it  happened  that  so  many  na- 
tions have  been  impelled  to  consume  more  than  they  restored  by 
their  industry,  and  thereby  have  landed  themselves  in  impoverish- 
ment and  distress  ?  We  may  hope  to  learn  from  such  an  inquiry 
some  lessons  that  may  guard  against  the  recurrence  of  so  great  a 
misfortune. 

How,  then,  has  it  come  to  pass  that  the  means  of  buying,  that 
the  quantity  of  goods  to  exchange,  have  been  so  fearfully  reduced  ? 
Let  us  turn  our  eyes,  in  the  first  place,  to  India  and  to  China:  these 
countries  will  furnish  us  with  terrible  illustrations  of  over-consump- 
tion. They  were  visited  with  great  famines;  and  there  is  no  over- 
consumption  severer  than  that  created  by  famine.  The  cost  of  cul- 
tivation is  increased,  laborers  are  fed  and  clothed,  tools  bought  and 
used,  seed  destroyed,  a  whole  year's  capital  annihilated,  and  there 
is  no  crop;  no  replacement  of  the  things  destroyed.  The  popula- 
tion is  ground  down  to  poverty,  many  perish — as  Ireland  testified 
in  18-47;  a  second  outlay  of  food  and  clothing  has  to  be  expended 
for  one  crop ;  the  power  of  buying  is  annihilated.  Comforts  and 
luxuries  became  of  impossible  attainment,  and  the  demand  for 
goods  to  be  supplied  to  China  and  India  all  but  vanished  from 
English  and  American  markets.  How  was  Manchester  to  sell  cal- 
ico, and  Bradford  woolen  cloth,  to  the  East  when  there  was  nothing 
to  pay  for  them — no  Chinese  and  Indian  wealth  to  send  back  in  ex- 
change ?  Depression  and  its  cause  here  present  themselves  very  viv- 
idly to  the  eyes  of  all  who  have  the  will  and  the  intelligence  to  see. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  United  States:  they  have  instruction  to 
give  us  of  the  highest  value.  They  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  this 
cycle  of  depression.  In  no  small  degree  they  set  it  revolving.  The 
part  which  America  took  in  creating  the  commercial  depression  was 


592  TEE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

of  her  own  choosing  :  China  and  India  suffered  from  a  dispensation 
of  Providence.  America  never  gave  a  thought  to  the  obvious  law 
that  to  consume  more  than  is  restored  by  subsequent  industry  lands 
man  and  nation  in  impoverishment.  She  constructed  railways  with 
mad  eagerness  in  the  wilderness,  never  stopping  to  inquire  what  it 
was  that  she  was  doing.  She  never  deigned  to  ask  herself  whether 
she  could  afford  the  cost.  What  so  prolific  of  wealth  as  railways  ? 
Had  not  Robert  Stephenson  pointed  out  years  ago  that  the  railways 
had  paid  off  the  national  debt  of  England  ?  These  iron  roads  were 
the  very  contrivance  for  making  the  American  people  rich;  they 
would  bring  their  vast  fields  and  enormous  products  into  close  neigh- 
borhood with  the  markets  of  the  world.  Those  who  had  settled,  or 
were  intending  to  settle,  in  the  far  West,  investors  eager  to  employ 
their  capital,  speculators  on  the  stock-exchanges,  all  rushed  forward 
to  build  railways.  They  fed  and  clothed  countless  laborers,  burned 
huge  stocks  of  coal  in  making  iron,  emptied  the  warehouses  and 
stores  of  the  Eastern  States  on  the  busy  workers  in  the  West,  con- 
sumed and  destroyed  immense  accumulations  of  wealth.  The  goods 
perished;  but  by  what  were  they  replaced  ?  By  rich  agricultural 
crops,  by  manufactured  products  streaming  forth  from  mills  and 
factories  ?  By  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  consumption  of  wealth 
made  tunnels  and  embankments,  and  long  lines  of  rails,  and  that 
was  all.  The  effect  for  the  time,  and  for  long  afterward,  has  been 
identically  the  same  as  if  the  energetic  laborers  of  America  had 
been  set  to  dig  holes  in  the  ground  and  to  fill  them  up  again.  Here 
was  over-consumption  indeed. 

But,  it  will  be  asked,  Does  the  construction  of  railroads  neces- 
sarily impoverish  ?  No,  not  necessarily ;  but  the  distinction  merits 
the  most  careful  attention  from  all  who  wish  well  to  their  country. 
Railways,  docks,  factories,  mines,  and  similar  constructions,  are 
what  political  economy  calls  fixed  capital,  of  which  the  distinguishing 
characteristic  is  that  their  cost,  the  capital  consumed  in  construct- 
ing them,  is  not  repaid  at  once,  but  only  after  a  period  more  or  less 
long,  generally  for  years.  A  small  portion  of  what  they  use  up  in 
being  made  is  replaced  out  of  profits  each  revolving  year  ;  the  re- 
mainder, though  a  diminishing  quantity,  continues  to  be  an  uncom- 
pensated loss.  If,  therefore,  the  construction  of  fixed  capital  is  car- 
ried out  to  excess,  diminution  of  wealth  is  the  necessary  conse- 
quence. But  what  is  excess  ?  What  defines  it  ?  Excess  is  what 
goes  beyond  the  amount  of  uninvested  savings  available  at  the  time. 
But  what  are  savings  ?    The  amount  of  wealth  produced,  the  surplus 


TEE  STAGNATION  OF  TEADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.      593 

beyond  what  restores  all  the  capital  laid  out  in  production,  profits 
and  wages  included.  Savings  are  really  surplus  income  coming  in 
beyond  what  the  owner  had  to  spend  naturally,  or  the  manufacturer 
requires  to  replace  all  his  cost.  That  surplus  may  be  consumed  in 
any  way  without  harm  ;  it  may  be  thrown  into  the  sea,  and  no  pov- 
erty is  incurred.  It  is  not  savings  yet ;  it  becomes  savings  when  it 
is  not  laid  out  in  luxuries  or  increased  enjoyment,  but  is  applied  as 
capital  to  enlarging  the  means  of  future  production.  The  man  who 
has  ten  thousand  pounds  a  year,  which  he  can  spend  lawfully  with- 
out injury,  if  he  devotes  three  thousand  pounds  to  the  draining  of 
his  estate,  spending  only  seven  thousand  pounds  on  his  living, 
saves.  He  makes  his  land  a  more  productive  machine  for  wealth, 
and  its  produce  is  permanently  larger.  Precisely  in  the  same  man- 
ner, if  a  nation  construct  railways  or  other  fixed  capital  out  of  sur- 
plus wealth  saved,  there  is  no  over-consumption,  no  impoverish- 
ment. Every  expense  of  the  nation  had  been  provided  for — what 
had  been  won  over  and  above  could  be  disposed  of  in  any  way 
without  loss.  The  United  States  built  railroads,  not  out  of  savings, 
but  out  of  capital,  and  became  poorer  and  depressed. 

But  the  mischief  does  not  end  here.  Over-consumption  brings 
in  those  leaps  and  bounds  in  trade  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  speaks. 
It  makes  a  nation  bubble  over  with  excitement.  The  demand  for 
commodities  is  unnaturally  increased.  The  railway  works  call  for 
iron  and  coal,  and  endless  other  articles.  The  supply  gave  rise  to 
higher  profits  and  wages  ;  the  movement  was  felt  in  every  store. 
Luxurious  expenditure  raised  its  head  ;  multitudes  of  bankers, 
stock-brokers,  engineers,  manufacturers,  multiplied  their  purchases, 
and  enlarged  their  destruction  of  wealth.  Then  burst  forth  new 
speculations,  fresh  enterprises,  the  undulation  of  excitement  and 
consumption  ever  expanding.  The  laborers  feel  the  impulse  ;  and, 
if  they  are  Englishmen,  and  not  Frenchmen,  their  outlay  on  drink 
and  personal  indulgences  will  keep  pace  with  the  universal  move- 
ment. They  marry  in  greater  numbers  and  at  an  earlier  age,  thus 
sowing  in  this  artificial  ground  the  seed  of  much  misery  in  the  fu- 
ture. Then  at  last  comes  the  rebound.  There  is  no  more  to  buy 
with,  and  overwhelming  is  the  collapse.  Commercial  depression 
avenges  the  universal  misconduct  with  sufferings  whose  acuteness 
is  but  too  well  understood. 

Such  was  the  course  pursued  in  America,  and  what  have  been  its 
consequences  ?  From  1873  until  the  last  bountiful  harvest  brought 
back  a  portion  of  their  lost  wealth  to  the  wasteful,  a  commercial 


594  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

depression  weighed  down  the  country  severer  yet  than  that  which 
overtook  England.  Coal  and  iron  mines  stopped  working,  blast- 
furnaces were  blown  out,  factories  stood  still,  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  working  people  were  reduced  to  idleness,  wages  rapidly 
fell,  railway  traffic  declined,  immigrants  fell  away,  destitute  laborers 
left  the  country,  strikes  broke  out  into  open  rebellion,  and  a  wide- 
spread mercantile  stringency  harassed  the  whole  nation  for  years. 

If  we  cross  the  Atlantic  to  Germany  the  same  phenomena  pre- 
sent themselves — the  same  sequence  of  cause  and  effect.  In  1870 
Germany  waged  a  mighty  war  with  France — and  what  but  famine 
can  vie  with  war  in  destructiveness  to  wealth  ?  Think  of  the  mul- 
titudes of  men  whom  it  converts  from  producers  into  consumers 
only  !  "War  replaces  nothing  that  it  destroys  ;  impoverishment  is 
its  inevitable  offspring.  But  did  not  the  indemnity  make  all  right 
for  Germany  ?  What  might  not  two  hundred  and  twenty  million 
pounds  effect  in  the  way  of  remedy  ?  Everything,  if  only  they  had 
reached  Germany  in  the  shape  of  goods,  of  useful  wealth,  to  re- 
place as  capital  what  had  been  consumed.  But  what  could  gold 
avail  for  the  relieving  of  German  distress  ?  The  currency  of  Ger- 
many was  not  deficient,  and  the  new  gold  could  be  applied  to  no 
restoring  process.  It  could  not  be  turned  into  wheels  for  moving 
machinery,  not  become  food  and  clothing  for  a  laboring  and  dis- 
tressed people.  So  long  as  it  remained  in  Germany,  all  that  it  could 
accomplish  was  to  put  material  wealth  into  different  hands,  and  this 
it  could  do  and  did  in  very  mischievous  ways.  Far  better  would  it 
have  been  if  it  had  been  locked  up  and  hoarded,  if  it  was  bound  to 
remain  in  Germany.  A  large  portion  of  this  gold  was  applied  to 
military  purposes,  to  the  building  of  fortresses.  Their  cost  was 
enormous ;  they  consumed  without  reproducing,  precisely  as  the 
American  railroads,  with  this  difference,  however,  on  the  bad  side, 
that  in  the  end  the  railroads  will  repay  their  cost  and  be  permanent 
increasers  of  the  national  wealth. 

Nor  was  this  all  the  harm  that  the  indemnity  gold  did.  Another 
portion  the  Government  lent  to  speculators,  who  retained  it  within 
the  country.  They  bought  German  goods  in  abundance:  prices  rose, 
brilliant  profits  were  realized,  and  the  same  fatal  tale  was  repeated. 
Luxurious  consumption  spread;  instead  of  restoring  what  the  war 
had  destroyed  by  parsimony,  prodigality  magnified  the  disaster,  and 
the  French  gold  wore  the  appearance  of  a  clear  contrivance  devised 
by  France  for  avenging  her  reverses. 

France  presents  a  spectacle  of  a  different  kind ;  yet   France, 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.      595 

too,  was  a  victim  of  over-consumption.  She  was  devastated  by  a 
great  war  carried  on  within  her  territory.  Her  fields  were  laid 
waste,  her  food  for  men  and  horses  destroyed,  her  factories  widely 
suspended  where  contending  hosts  were  struggling,  her  laborers 
called  away  from  their  industry  and  enrolled  in  unproductive  regi- 
ments, her  capital  annihilated  in  guns  and  gunpowder.  Then  came 
the  indemnity  ;  but,  fortunately,  her  thrifty  peasants  had  piled  up 
hoards  in  their  rural  homes:  it  could  be  lent  to  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  leave  France  without  any  injury  to  her  industry  or  her 
practical  wealth.  But  what  was  not  gold  had  to  be  sent  away  in 
material  wealth,  and  each  year  as  it  revolves  finds  France  pressed 
with  an  increase  of  taxation,  amounting  to  thirty  millions  of  pounds 
sterling.  If  ever  nation  might  have  been  expected  in  modern  times 
to  exhibit  the  picture  of  universal  ruin  it  was  France.  It  was  far 
otherwise.  France  astonished  mankind  with  a  power  of  fighting 
depression,  a  strength  of  recovery,  unequaled  in  history.  Her  peo- 
ple suffer,  but  with  no  sense  of  overwhelming  poverty.  The  piled- 
up  load  of  her  taxation  is  borne  with  ease.  And  to  what  is  this 
wonderful  sight  due  ?  To  the  practice  of  the  greatest  of  economical 
virtues.  France  saved.  She  met  impoverishment  with  parsimony. 
She  diminished  the  consumption  of  enjoyments,  to  apply  the  re- 
sources thereby  gained  to  the  maintenance  of  her  capital  employed 
in  production.  These  are  the  realities  of  practical  political  economy, 
and  what  fruit  do  they  not  bear  ? 

England  now  comes  upon  the  stage.  She  is  found  walking  in 
the  same  path  of  over-consumption.  Since  1870  England  has  been 
busy  with  destroying  more  wealth  than  she  made,  to  a  degree  une- 
qualed by  any  other  country  except,  perhaps,  America.  Innumerable 
are  the  forces  which  bear  on  her  commercial  position.  She  trades 
with  all  the  world,  she  manufactures  for  many  nations,  her  industries 
depend  on  their  power  of  purchasing;  their  fortunes  she  necessarily 
shares.  If  her  customers  thrive,  she  prospers;  if  their  means  of  buy- 
ing fail,  the  blow  is  felt  in  every  corner  of  her  land.  Their  pros- 
perity and  their  adversity  are  really  also  her  own. 

This  community  of  interest  between  England  and  other  countries 
takes  us  round  the  world  in  exploring  the  causes  of  her  suffering. 
She  was  a  partner  or  a  victim  of  their  over-consumption,  besides  what 
she  practiced  on  her  own  account.  One  mode  of  destroying  wealth 
she  abstained  from:  till  quite  recently,  she  did  not  indulge  in  the 
over-consumption  of  war  and  great  armies.  Yet  war  has  affected 
her  deeply — war  carried  on  by  her  customers.    At  an  earlier  period 


596  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

the  great  war  of  the  American  secession  created  the  cotton  famine 
of  Lancashire,  stripped  her  of  the  means  of  manufacturing,  and  threw 
vast  masses  of  her  population  into  destitution.  The  Austro-Prus- 
sian  and  Franco-German  wars,  the  devastating  hostilities  carried  on 
by  China  in  the  far  East,  the  struggles  in  Servia  and  Turkey,  the  ex- 
aggerated armaments  of  Russia  and  Germany,  wasted  an  immense 
capital,  and  vastly  diminished  their  power  of  supporting  British  in- 
dustry. Further  yet,  England  took  a  part  in  the  rashnesses  of  other 
countries.  She  gave  help  in  the  invasion  of  the  American  wilds  by 
railroads ;  she  bought  a  colossal  amount  of  American  bonds  which 
had  been  issued  for  their  construction — in  other  words;  she  gave 
away  her  iron  and  other  wealth,  and  got  only  paper  documents  in 
return.  Thus  she  practically  consumed  her  wealth — for  to  lend 
it  is  to  lose  it  for  the  time — without  replacing  it  at  home  with 
new  products  obtained  from  abroad,  and  consequently  shared  in 
the  penalty  which  had  fallen  on  the  Americans  for  over-consumption. 
But  England  did  much  more  in  promoting  the  process  of  over- 
consumption.  She  imitated  the  American  proceeding  of  creating 
an  excess  of  fixed  capital.  She  poured  out  loans  in  splendid  pro- 
fusion upon  foreign  countries,  nominally  for  the  development  of 
their  industry  by  railways  and  other  instruments  of  production. 
Some  she  gave  to  solvent  debtors,  others  to  insolvent ;  but  the  ef- 
fect in  both  cases  was  identical  as  to  the  diminution  of  her  wealth. 
For  the  time,  for  the  creation  of  depression,  it  matters  not  whether 
6he  lent  to  a  country  which  would  repay  or  to  one  which  would  not. 
She  parted  with  her  capital :  she  lessened  her  stock  of  goods  and 
of  means  of  reproducing  ;  she  sent  away  that  which,  if  it  had  re- 
mained at  home,  would  have  amply  restored  its  consumption.  The 
loans  were  reckoned  as  money  ;  but  money  was  not  the  thing  lent. 
England  has  no  money,  no  gold  and  silver,  to  lend  ;  commodities 
are  all  that  she  can  give  to  borrowers.  If  she  bids  them  draw  bills 
upon  her,  she  can  obtain  money,  if  demanded,  wherewith  to  face 
those  bills  by  purchasing  it  with  her  merchandise.  To  lend  became 
a  devouring  passion  on  the  Stock  Exchange  of  London.  Peru  and 
Venezuela,  Honduras  and  Guatemala,  Turkey  and  Egypt,  swallowed 
up  countless  millions  of  English  wealth.  The  grand  colonies  came 
forward  with  a  sounder  plea  for  borrowing.  They  pointed  to  their 
vast,  expanding  trade,  to  their  tillage  and  their  flocks,  and  they 
dwelt  on  the  mighty  help  which  railroads  and  other  machinery 
could  render  them  in  developing  the  natural  resources  of  their  coun- 
try.    England  relied  on  excellent  interest  and  a  brilliant  future. 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.      597 

Her  hope  and  her  faith  were  not  misplaced  ;  but  again  she  forgot 
that  she  was  over-consuming — that  she  was  losing  more  capital  than 
she  had  to  spare  or  could  replace. 

Another  counter-clap  fell  at  home  on  the  unhappy  British 
wealth.  The  working-classes  were  impelled  by  the  loans  to  figure, 
and  to  figure  largely,  in  the  universal  over-consumption.  The  loans 
went  out  in  commodities,  and  the  commodities  were  made  by  Eng- 
lish labor.  Ironclads  for  Turkey,  rails  and  locomotives  for  Amer- 
ica and  the  colonies,  clothing  for  their  men  and  women,  now  pros- 
pering on  what  they  had  borrowed,  were  energetically  supplied 
from  England.  Sales  were  enormously  increased  ;  labor  was  in 
vigorous  demand  by  employers  reveling  in  large  profits  ;  prices  of 
all  articles  advanced ;  iron  mounted  to  twenty  pounds  a  ton — the 
same  iron  which  now  fetches  only  six  pounds — and  luxurious  en- 
joyment broke  out  on  every  side.  Who  stopped  to  inquire  whether 
this  roaring  business  was  legitimate  ;  whether  England  was  mak- 
ing for  eager  borrowers,  getting  nothing  but  acknowledgments  of 
debt  in  return  ?  Masters  and  men  were  not  responsible  for  these 
loans  ;  that  was  the  affair  of  Stock-Exchange  men  and  bankers. 
All  that  they  knew  was,  that  their  products  were  in  great  demand, 
and  were  handsomely  paid  for.  The  increase  of  wages  led  to  a 
further  immense  over-consumption  ;  for  English  laborers  do  not 
save.  The  wealth  of  the  nation  was  largely  destroyed  in  drink  and 
luxuries.  But  this  was  not  all.  The  union  leaders  took  advantage 
of  the  situation  to  enforce  that  ignorant  policy  which  has  led  to  so 
many  disastrous  rules  for  withholding  the  worth  of  wages,  and  pre- 
venting the  workingmen  from  giving  back  work  worth  what  they 
received.  Strikes,  with  their  suspensions  of  industry,  while  con- 
sumption was  going  on  at  an  accelerated  pace,  followed  in  numbers. 
It  would  seem  as  if  men  had  enlisted  themselves  in  a  race  how  to 
impoverish  themselves  and  their  country  most  swiftly. 

Nor  does  this  end  the  catalogue  of  woes.  Profits  would  not  be 
outdone  by  wages  in  the  pleasant  function  of  over-consuming,  of 
living  on  the  destruction  of  capital  ;  never  heeding  that  they  were 
galloping  into  poverty.  New  enterprises  were  pushed  forward ; 
new  factories  and  other  fixed  capital  created  ;  new  mines  opened  ; 
new  stocks  accumulated.  No  one  dreamed  of  the  day,  so  dark  upon 
the  world  now,  so  slow  to  set,  when  over-production  would  rear  its 
unwelcome  head ;  when  buyers  would  die  away ;  when  markets 
lately  so  brilliant  would  be  overloaded,  and  commercial  depression 
would  reign  supreme  in  the  darkness. 

vol.  cxxviii. — no.  271.  39 


598  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Thus  opens  upon  us  the  second  scene  in  this  wonderful  drama, 
the  second  stage  in  the  process  of  over-consumption — the  period  of 
over-production.  The  curtain  was  first  lifted  in  America.  In  1873 
the  American  people  found  that  the  poverty-creating  practice  of 
building  an  excess  of  fixed  capital  could  be  carried  on  no  longer. 
The  day  of  reckoning  broke  upon  the  promoters  of  illegitimate  rail- 
roads. A  severe  crisis  fell  upon  the  money  markets  of  the  United 
States.  A  shock  struck  American  credit,  and  Europe  would  buy  no 
more  American  bonds  with  her  goods.  The  concussion  propagated 
itself  over  the  mines  and  factories  of  Europe,  especially  over  those 
of  England,  which  had  supplied  so  many  materials  for  the  American 
railways.  Loans  died  away,  and  with  them  the  demand  for  those 
manufactured  products  in  which  they  were  lent.  Buyers  vanished. 
The  iron  and  the  coal,  the  cotton  goods  and  the  woolen  cloths  of 
the  new  factories  were  not  wanted  nor  inquired  for ;  profits  were 
converted  into  losses  ;  the  rate  of  wages  became  intolerable.  As 
trade  fell  away,  the  thought  of  a  temporary  lull,  to  be  followed  by  a 
revival  of  the  former  briskness,  fed  hope  in  anxious  makers.  They 
shrank  from  reducing  or  stopping  their  works  ;  they  recoiled  from 
dismissing  workmen  whose  services  they  might  soon  be  eager  to  re- 
gain. But  the  sting  of  their  trouble  lay  in  the  new  works  added  on 
to  the  old  ones — the  extended  factories,  the  mines  sunk  down  at 
great  depths.  So  they  struggled  on  into  over-production.  They  went 
on  making,  as  buyers  went  on  failing — the  over-consumption  of  fixed 
capital  sentenced  them  to  the  sufferings  of  over-production. 

But  the  stern  facts  of  the  situation  became  visible  at  last.  Mills 
and  mines  were  then  closed  in  numbers — for  the  laws  of  trade,  like 
those  of  nature,  are  peremptory.  Where  buyers  are  wanting,  manu- 
facturing and  exchange  must  cease,  whatever  men  and  masters  may 
say  or  do.  Many  men  could  find  no  employment,  and  were  thrown 
upon  public  support — over-consumption  thus  everlastingly  repeat- 
ing itself,  for  these  men  lived,  and  did  nothing  for  their  livelihood. 
Wages  were  reduced  and  men  struck,  and  fearful  was  the  loss  which 
the  strikes  made  and  are  still  making.  On  those  who  still  remained 
in  the  mills,  reduction  after  reduction  was  successively  imposed;  for 
still  buyers  failed  to  present  themselves  in  expanding  numbers.  The 
cost  of  production  has  been  lowered  for  many  goods,  but  custom- 
ers have  not  yet  recovered  their  power  to  buy  ;  time  still  is  want- 
ing for  them  to  acquire  wealth  wherewith  to  purchase. 

But  the  evil  of  over-production  is  gradually  healing  itself.  The 
stoppage  of  works  and  diminution  of  manufacturing  have  gone  on 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.       599 

for  some  time,  and  vast  accumulations  of  unsalable  stocks  have 
wellnigh  disappeared.  The  great  evil,  indeed,  of  over-consumption 
still  remains,  b«t  not  in  so  acute  a  form.  The  trouble  which  weighs 
down  the  whole  commercial  world  is  still  excess  of  mechanical  and 
manufacturing  power  in  the  face  of  decayed  ability  to  buy ;  but 
this  excess  is  found  now,  not  so  much  in  the  new  works  erected  in 
the  day  of  excitement,  as  in  the  ordinary  natural  manufacturing 
machinery.  The  poverty  of  buyers  has  been  brought  down  by  the 
over-consumption  below  the  former  level :  consumption  can  not  pur- 
chase even  up  to  the  old  customary  extent. 

If  the  word  production  is  to  be  used  in  this  relation — and  it  is 
ever  on  the  lips  of  many — over-cost  of  production  would  be  the 
phrase  that  would  best  describe  the  actual  commercial  situation. 
The  goods  offered  for  sale  are  too  dear  for  the  means  of  consumers. 
Uncontrollable  forces  place  them  out  of  their  reach,  except  at  lower 
prices,  or  compel  them  to  go  without  them  altogether.  Reduction 
of  the  cost  of  production,  therefore,  is  the  only  outlet  by  which 
employers  can  escape  the  abandonment  of  their  business,  until 
other  forces  have  restored  to  the  nations  their  ancient  power  of 
purchasing.  It  is  a  situation  identical  with  that  created  by  famine. 
What  happened  to  Ireland  in  1847  has  now  befallen  wide  regions 
of  the  civilized  world. 

And,  now,  what  are  the  remedies  to  be  applied  for  the  mitiga- 
tion and  ultimate  termination  of  this  depression  with  all  its  suffer- 
ings? Many  of  various  kinds  are  proposed  with  much  passion. 
One  especially  is  advocated  with  great  fervor  by  the  working 
classes  and  their  advocates.  It  takes  its  stand  on  the  assumed  fact 
of  over-production.  It  imputes  the  blame  of  the  calamity  to  this 
alleged  proceeding,  and  proclaims  that  the  cure  will  be  obtained 
from  its  direct  opposite.  More  goods,  it  argues,  are  made  than 
consumers  can  be  found  to  buy  ;  and  they  sink  to  prices  which  can 
not  meet  the  cost  of  production.  Reverse  the  practice — make  less, 
it  is  vehemently  urged  ;  work  short  time — and  a  cure  will  be 
effected.  It  is  admitted  that  the  market  can  not  clear  off  the  goods 
at  existing  prices,  and  that  the  laborers  must  receive  less  remunera- 
tion. Let  the  reduction  be  taken  in  five  or  four  days'  work  a  week 
instead  of  six — the  rate  of  wage  per  day  will  then  be  kept  up. 
The  over-production  will  be  stopped,  all  the  goods  made  will  be 
sold,  and  in  good  time  the  sunshine  will  again  reappear. 

This  policy  is  founded  on  a  complete  misunderstanding  of  the 
nature  of  that  industry  which  supplies  the  life  of  mankind  with 


600  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

those  commodities  which  are  summed  up  in  the  word  wealth.  A 
country  is  rich  when  much  is  produced ;  it  is  poor,  and  its  people 
live  at  a  low  level,  when  there  is  little  made,  little  to  divide  among 
them.  Now,  what  does  this  policy  counsel  ?  Make  less  ;  let  there 
be  less  wealth.  Work  four  days  a  week  instead  of  six ;  let  the 
price  of  the  goods  and  the  rate  of  wage  remain  where  they  are 
now.  And  this  advice  to  keep  goods  dear  is  urged  at  a  time  when 
all  the  commercial  distress  is  the  consequence  of  the  one  fact  that 
there  is  little  to  buy  with,  little  to  give  in  exchange.  Are  such 
men  unable  to  perceive  the  obvious  truth  that,  if  every  man  in  a 
nation  worked  half  time  and  produced  half  the  quantity  of  goods, 
every  man  would  be  only  half  as  well  off  ? 

But  worse  still.  The  preachers  of  this  policy  make  two  assump- 
tions which  are  perfectly  false.  They  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
cost  of  production  of  the  goods  and  their  price  will  both  continue 
unchanged.  The  very  reverse  of  this  will  take  place  :  the  goods 
under  short  time  will  be  dearer  to  make  and  will  be  dearer  to  sell. 
In  every  manufacturing  business  there  are  heavy  charges  to  be 
faced  which  will  not  be  reduced  by  working  fewer  days  in  the 
week.  Interest  on  capital  will  be  the  same,  so  also  the  rent  of  the 
buildings,  the  expense  of  pumping  up  the  water  from  the  mine, 
the  charges  for  superintendence  and  office-work,  the  wear  and  tear 
of  the  machinery.  These  expenses  were  charged  on  the  produc- 
tion of  six  days  ;  they  will  now  fall  on  the  goods  manufactured  in 
five  or  four,  and  inevitably  they  add  to  their  cost  of  production, 
and  consequently  to  the  price  which  must  be  demanded  for  pro- 
ducing them.  Many  of  the  buyers  who  bought  the  goods  of  the 
five  days  will  now  be  unable  to  afford  them  ;  the  over-production 
will  be  increased,  the  depression  more  intense,  and  the  necessity  for 
a  further  reduction  will  become  irresistible.  And  who  will  be  the 
sufferers  ?  If  this  principle  is  sound  in  policy,  it  will  be  applied  to 
all  trades,  and  goods  dearer  in  every  shop  will  be  the  inevitable 
consequence.  The  working  classes  are  the  greatest  buyers  and 
consumers  in  a  nation ;  their  money,  even  if  not  diminished,  will 
encounter  higher  prices,  and  will  not  go  so  far  in  purchasing  ;  they 
will  have  condemned  themselves  by  short  time  to  live  upon  a  lower 
scale,  with  fewer  comforts  to  enjoy,  by  their  own  act.  Can  it  be  a 
matter  of  surprise  if  the  counselors  who  urged  the  enforcement  of 
short  time  were  described  as  advising  workmen  to  commit  suicide  ? 

What  a  contrast  does  the  opposite  method  of  proceeding  pre- 
sent !     The  laborer  would  receive  the  same  diminished  wage  for 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.       601 

the  week,  but  he  works  and  produces  during  six  days.  The  price 
of  the  goods  can  be  lowered,  for  the  reduction  of  wages  has  dimin- 
ished the  cost  of  production,  and  there  are  as  many  things  made  as 
previously.  Fresh  buyers  come  in  who  could  not  afford  the  former 
price.  Even  if  the  employer  earns  no  profit,  he  may  be  saved  from 
loss  till  the  wealth  of  the  country  has  expanded.  More  is  produced 
on  such  a  system  in  the  various  industries  all  round.  The  power 
of  buying  is  thus  increased,  for  there  is  more  to  give  in  exchange. 
The  depression  is  attacked,  face  to  face,  in  its  very  heart ;  the 
waste  which  created  that  depression  is  gradually  restored  by  en- 
larged production,  and,  with  the  growth  of  commodities  made, 
profits  and  wages  are  benefited  together. 

But  there  is  another  additional  fallacy  contained  in  the  demand 
for  short  time.  It  involves  the  assumption  that  a  minimum  rate  of 
wages  can  be  decreed  and  enforced  at  the  pleasure  of  the  laborers. 
No  more  egregious  delusion  can  befall  wretched  mortals.  In  all 
purchases  the  buyer  is  supreme.  He  decides  whether  the  article 
shall  be  bought ;  and,  if  the  price  exceeds  either  his  means  or  his 
desire  to  acquire  the  article,  there  will  be  no  purchase.  Nor  will 
he  be  without  other  resources.  He  will  betake  himself  to  other 
sellers  ;  he  will  fall  back  upon  the  competition  of  foreign  pro- 
ducers, who  work  longer  hours,  and  probably  with  more  good  will. 
This  is  a  consideration  of  very  serious  import  to  a  nation  like  Eng- 
land, which  owes  her  commercial  greatness,  and  with  it  the  very 
existence  of  a  large  portion  of  her  population,  to  her  command  of 
distant  markets  all  over  the  world.  The  demand  for  a  minimum 
wage,  if  one  could  conceive  it  to  be  persisted  in,  might  bring  count- 
less English  laborers,  not  only  to  the  workhouse,  but  to  starvation. 

The  sufferings  of  stagnant  trade  have  brought  home  this  thought 
of  foreign  rivals  to  the  feelings  of  impoverished  masters  and  work- 
men in  many  countries.  Even  in  England,  the  stronghold  of  free 
trade,  the  cry  for  protection  is  increasingly  heard.  Not  that  pro- 
tection is  demanded  in  plain  terms  ;  for  the  people  of  England  are 
profoundly  convinced  that  protection  is  nothing  but  pure  folly.  It 
is  disguised  under  the  pleasant  name  of  reciprocity,  which  is  simply 
protection  with  an  excuse  for  it.  "  The  French  refuse  to  buy  our 
cottons,"  exclaims  the  embittered  cotton-spinner  ;  "  let  England  re- 
taliate by  refusing  to  buy  French  silks.  We  shall  thus  accomplish 
two  things  :  we  shall  punish  France,  and  do  good  to  the  distressed 
silk-manufacturers  of  England.  They  will  be  protected  against 
competing   strangers  with  their  long  hours  of  working  and  low 


602  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

wages.  The  national  industries  shall  not  be  extinguished  by  an  in- 
vasion so  cruel." 

But  will  this  do  any  good  to  the  cotton-spinner  himself  ?  for 
there  is  the  rub.  In  truth,  this  language  is  scarcely  rational — to 
be  excused  by  a  natural  feeling  of  resentment  for  a  supposed 
.wrong.  Reciprocity  asks  for  the  imposition  of  protection  when 
it  dares  not  say  that  protection  can  be  defended,  least  of  all  by  a 
motive  which  has  no  connection  whatever  with  the  trade  in  whose 
behalf  it  is  demanded.  Protect  the  silk-maker  because  the  cotton- 
spinner  is  hurt :  this  is  reciprocity  in  its  full  nakedness.  A  few 
truisms,  it  is  believed,  will  suffice  to  make  this  clear. 

The  first  thing  that  protection  does  is,  to  ask  where  the  goods 
were  made  ;  its  action  turns  upon  the  nationality  of  the  merchan- 
dise. But  what  has  the  place  where  the  goods  were  made  to  do 
with  the  buying  and  the  selling  of  them  ?  What  rational  principle 
can  be  pleaded  for  thrusting  in  the  nationality  of  the  goods  be- 
tween buyer  and  seller  ?  The  price  and  the  quality  of  the  goods 
are  the  only  things  which  concern  them.  Be  the  two  men  of  the 
same  nation,  or  be  they,  one  a  Frenchman,  the  other  an  Englishman, 
Tros  Tyriusve,  what  matters  it  ?  "  Oh  ! "  the  thoughtless  reply, 
"  the  English  buy  French  goods,  but  the  French  will  not  buy  Eng- 
lish goods  in  return."  Then  with  what  does  the  Englishman  make 
the  purchase  ?  Trade  is  nothing  but  an  exchange  of  goods  of  equal 
value.  No  one,  be  it  man  or  nation,  can  buy  unless  it  also  sells. 
The  English  must  give  the  French  what  their  goods  are  worth,  or 
they  will  never  get  them.  "  Exactly  so,"  it  is  replied.  "  The  French 
may  choose  to  say  that  they  want  nothing  which  England  pro- 
duces ;  they  may  insist  on  being  paid  in  money.  If  so,  what  is  the 
harm  ?  "  Money  is  ever  introducing  confusion  into  this  very  simple 
subject.  England  does  not  grow  gold  in  her  fields.  If  the  French- 
men insist  on  having  gold,  then  England  can  not  buy  the  French 
goods,  unless  some  other  country  has  given  her  gold  in  exchange  for 
her  goods  ;  she  passes  that  gold  on  to  the  French,  and  there  the  mat- 
ter ends.  She  has  indirectly,  but  very  really,  given  goods  for  goods  ; 
she  has  sold  as  much  as  she  has  bought.  There  is  no  loss  on  either 
side  ;  each  produces  an  equal  worth  of  goods  to  exchange.  It  may 
make  the  explanation  clearer  if  it  be  allowed  to  repeat  here  a  pas- 
sage which  bears  directly  on  this  subject  : 

The  truth  stands  out  in  clear  sunshine.  Free  trade  can  not  and  does  not 
injure  domestic  industry.  Under  free  trade  foreign  countries  give  in  every 
case  as  much  employment  to  English  workmen  and  capitalists  as  if  nothing 


THE  STAGNATION  OF  TRADE  AND  ITS  CAUSE.       603 

had  been  bought  abroad.  English  goods  of  the  same  value  must  be  purchased 
by  the  foreigner,  or  the  trade  comes  to  an  end.  There  must  be  an  equal 
amount  of  English  goods  made  and  sent  away,  or  England  will  never  obtain 
the  foreign  commodities.  Free  trade  never  does  harm  to  the  country  which 
practices  it ;  and  that  mighty  fact  alone  kills  protection.  Let  those  who  are 
backsliding  into  protection  be  asked,  Can  and  will  the  foreigner  give  away 
his  goods  to  any  country  without  insisting  on  receiving  back,  directly  or  in- 
directly, an  equal  quantity  of  that  country's  goods?  Let  the  question  be 
pushed  home,  and  all  talk  about  injury  to  domestic  industry  must  cease 
("  Chapters  on  Practical  Political  Economy,"  p.  307). 

But  how  does  protection  act  ?  It  imposes  a  duty  on  the  foreign- 
made  article,  and  not  on  the  one  made  at  home.  Thus,  the  price  of 
the  foreign  commodity  is  raised — always  to  a  height  sufficient  to 
make  it  dearer  than  its  domestic  competitor,  or  even  to  exclude  it 
from  the  home  market  altogether.  By  this  intervention,  the  home 
commodity,  which  was  driven  from  the  market  by  its  naturally 
higher  price,  becomes  the  cheaper  of  the  two,  and  commands  the 
market  in  consequence.  But  who  pays  the  duty,  or  else  the  excess 
of  price,  of  the  domestic  above  that  of  the  foreign  article  if  it  had 
been  allowed  to  come  in  free  ?  The  home  buyers  ;  that  is,  the 
whole  people  of  the  country  which  imposes  protection.  They  pay 
more  to  their  own  countrymen  than  they  would  have  had  to  pay  to 
the  foreign  maker.  The  difference  is  a  tax  imposed  to  support  cer- 
tain persons  who  would  be  unable  to  maintain  themselves  by  the 
trade  in  which  they  are  engaged.  Clearly,  then,  it  is  a  poor-rate 
paid  by  the  protecting  nation  at  its  own  cost,  given  to  the  home 
makers,  an  impoverishment  of  the  public  wealth,  which  they  con- 
sume and  destroy  without  giving  any  compensation  for  it  beyond 
what  the  foreigner  would  have  bestowed  at  his  lower  price. 

Protection  is  an  erroneous  policy  ;  but  it  raises  a  fair  issue : 
Shall  the  supplies  wThich  a  nation  wants  be  made  at  home  or  abroad  ? 
And  it  can  allege  reasons  plausible  at  first  sight.  But  reciprocity,  as 
it  is  now  put,  can  plead  none  but  childish  reasons  in  its  own  behalf. 
It  does  not  say  that  protection  is  a  wise  policy  :  far  from  it.  But  it 
says,  in  England,  for  instance  :  "  The  American  diminishes  our  trade 
by  putting  a  duty  on  English  iron.  He  diminishes  his  own  trade 
also,  it  is  true,  and  he  puts  a  tax  on  the  American  people,  which  they 
themselves  have  to  pay.  Still,  he  hurts  us  :  let  us  hurt  him  in  turn." 
"  But  what  good  will  that  do  us  ?  Will  it  increase  our  trade  ?  Will 
it  cure  our  depression  ?  "  "  Not  at  all.  But  it  will  punish  him  ;  and 
let  us  have  this  gratification,  even  though  we  can  obtain  it  only  by 


604  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

taxing  ourselves,  and  in  addition  contracting  our  already  depressed 
trade."  Is  it  possible  that  any  one  grown  up  to  man's  estate  can 
utter  such  absurdities  ? 

The  demand  for  reciprocity  is  the  child  of  a  radical  misconcep- 
tion— of  the  want  of  perception  of  a  very  simple  fact.  It  mixes  up 
and  confounds  together  into  one,  two  things  which  have  no  connec- 
tion whatever  with  each  other.  It  chooses  to  regard  two  separate 
trades  as  one  ;  and  on  this  blunder  its  absurd  advice  is  founded.  It 
does  not  see  that  the  production  of  silks  is  a  business  which  stands 
by  itself.  England  decides  not  to  protect  her  silks,  but  to  buy  the 
French  silks,  thereby  saving  wealth  and  avoiding  the  losses  which 
protection  always  entails.  There  the  matter  ends.  The  French 
pursue  the  reverse  policy.  They  protect  their  cottons,  and  will  not 
buy  those  of  England.  That  is  a  foolish  proceeding,  for  France  puts 
a  tax  upon  herself,  and  restricts  the  trade  between  France  and  Eng- 
land. But  what  motive  does  the  bad  form  which  France  gives  to 
her  cotton  trade  furnish  to  England  for  altering  the  sound  organiza- 
tion she  has  bestowed  on  the  silk  trade  ?  That  organization  was 
settled  on  its  own  merits  without  reference  to  anything  else  but  silk. 
How  can  it  be  affected  by  what  happens  to  cotton  ?  How  can  a  bad 
form  given  to  the  cotton-supply  be  a  reason  for  a  bad  form  also 
being  given  to  the  production  of  silk  ?  Silk  and  cotton  are  perfect 
strangers  to  each  other,  touching  at  no  point.  Reciprocity  may  try 
for  ever,  but  it  will  never  find  a  reason  why  a  country  having  received 
a  hurt  in  one  trade  should,  on  that  account,  of  her  own  doing,  hurt 
herself  in  another. 

Finally,  what  is  to  be  done  to  end  the  commercial  depression  ? 
Reverse  the  process  which  created  it.  Instead  of  over-consuming, 
make  more  wealth.  Produce  much,  with  earnestness  and  continuance 
of  work,  restoring  the  consumption  that  does  and  must  go  on  with 
new  wealth — making  an  addition  to  it  by  saving.  The  savings  will  be 
capital,  instruments  for  increased  production,  and  for  accumulating 
a  larger  stock  of  wealth  to  be  divided  over  the  whole  people.  This 
enlarged  stock  will  strike  at  the  heart  of  the  depression,  as  has  been 
so  manifestly  shown  by  the  effects  on  the  commercial  stock  of  the 
American  people  of  the  grand  addition  made  to  its  wealth  by  the 
abundance  of  its  harvests.  That  was  a  production  of  more,  effected 
by  the  hand  of  Providence,  but  setting  up  a  noble  example  for  imi- 
tation and  proclaiming  the  great  economical  truth  that  to  make 
much  all  round  is  the  root  of  all  prosperity. 

Bonamt  Price. 


IV. 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  FREEMEN. 


The  short  period  of  fourteen  years  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
late  war  has  been  witness  of  a  more  wonderful  moral  and  political 
revolution  in  these  United  States  than  has  ever  been  recorded  in 
history  before. 

Between  four  and  five  million  human  beings,  who  had  hitherto 
been  deprived  of  every  right  of  human  nature,  have  been  sud- 
denly precipitated  into  freedom  and  invested  with  the  rights  of 
republican  citizens. 

There  have  been  instances  before  of  the  sudden  emancipations 
of  oppressed  masses,  but  their  results  have  been  so  fearful  as  to  fill 
thoughtful  minds  with  a  just  terror.  The  French  Revolution  with 
its  sansculottism,  its  untold  horrors,  ended  perforce  in  a  despotism, 
and  it  was  not  without  cause  that  an  English  thinker  treated  of  our 
emancipation  act  as  "  Shooting  Niagara."  We  have  shot  Niagara, 
and  are  alive  and  well.  Our  ship  of  state  has  been  through  those 
mighty  rapids  and  plunged  down  that  awful  gulf,  while  nations 
held  their  breath,  expecting  to  see  her  go  to  pieces.  But  lo  !  she 
has  emerged,  stanch  and  steady,  and  is  now  sailing  on. 

That  the  passengers  have  been  somewhat  tumbled  about  and 
shaken,  that  here  and  there  a  timber  has  cracked  or  a  joint  started, 
that  there  have  been  whirlpools  and  eddies,  and  uncomfortable  sail- 
ing, we  all  know.  But  the  miracle  of  our  day  is  that  the  ship  is 
sailing  on,  in  better  order  than  ever  before — in  better  order,  for 
that  unwieldy  stowage  of  oppression  which  she  was  obliged  to  carry 
has  been  thrown  overboard,  and  she  sails  free  ! 

In  order  justly  to  estimate  the  present  state  of  education  and 
progress  among  the  freedmen  of  the  United  States,  we  must  glance 


606  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

back  to  the  condition  in  which  they  were  under  slavery.  A  slave 
could  hold  no  property,  had  no  rights,  could  not  testify  either  in 
a  court  of  justice  or  a  Christian  church,  could  not  contract  a  legal 
marriage,  had  no  legal  rights  over  his  children — in  short,  was  a  hu- 
man being  carefully,  legally,  and  systematically  despoiled  of  every 
right  of  humanity. 

To  teach  a  slave  to  read  and  write  was  forbidden,  under  heavy 
penalties.  In  some  States  the  penalty  for  teaching  him  to  read  was 
far  heavier  than  for  maiming  him  or  putting  out  his  eyes.  As  the 
soil  in  certain  States  became  exhausted,  breeding  slaves  for  a  more 
southern  market  became  a  systematic  process,  and  was  reported 
upon  in  agricultural  papers  and  meetings  in  much  the  same  terms 
that  might  apply  to  the  breeding  of  horses  and  mules. 

In  the  Northern  States,  the  colored  people  were  generally  disfran- 
chised, and,  if  not  forbidden  education  by  law,  were  repelled  from 
the  schools  by  prejudice,  and  prejudices  apparently  far  more  bitter 
at  the  North  than  at  the  South. 

In  1832  Miss  Prudence  Crandall  undertook  to  open  a  private 
boarding-school  for  young  colored  girls,  in  Canterbury,  Connecticut. 
The  enterprise  was  denounced  in  advance,  by  the  people  of  this 
place,  in  a  public  meeting.  When  the  term  opened,  with  fifteen 
or  twenty  young  girls  from  Philadelphia,  Boston,  New  York,  and 
Providence,  storekeepers,  butchers,  milkmen,  and  farmers,  with  one 
consent,  refused  to  sell  provisions  to  the  school,  and  supplies  had 
to  be  brought  from  expensive  distances.  The  scholars  were  insulted 
in  the  streets  ;  the  door-steps  and  doors  were  besmeared  with  filth, 
and  the  well  filled  with  the  same  ;  the  village  doctor  refused  to  visit 
the  sick  pupils  ;  and  the  trustees  of  the  church  forbade  them  to  set 
foot  in  their  building.  The  house  was  assaulted  by  a  mob  with 
clubs  and  iron  bars  ;  they  broke  the  glass  of  the  windows  and  terri- 
fied the  inmates.  Finally,  the  State  Legislature  passed  an  act  mak- 
ing this  school  an  illegal  enterprise,  and  under  this  act  Miss  Cran- 
dall was  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail. 

This  apparently  unaccountable  sensitiveness  of  the  Northern 
mind  becomes  intelligible  when  we  consider  that  there  were  as 
really  slaveholders  in  the  Northern  as  the  Southern  States.  Ne- 
gro slaves  were  the  assets  of  every  Southern  estate,  plantation, 
and  firm ;  they  were  offered  as  security  for  debt,  and  the  large 
commercial  business  of  the  North  with  the  South  was  carried  on 
upon  this  basis.  There  were  abundance  of  rich  slaveholders  in 
Northern  churches,  who  felt  with  the  keen  instinct  of  self -inter- 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  FREEDM.EN.  607 

est  anything  which  interfered  with  their  gains,  and  who  did  not 
wish  to  have  trouble  of  conscience,  and  they  hated  the  negro 
because  he  aroused  this  uncomfortable  faculty.  The  Northern 
abolitionist  proclaimed  that  to  buy,  hold,  or  sell  a  human  being  for 
gains  was  a  sin  against  God,  and,  like  all  other  sins,  to  be  immedi- 
ately repented  of  and  forsaken.  Now,  when  a  New  York  merchant 
got  a  letter  from  his  lawyer,  apprising  him  that  he  had  taken 
twenty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  negroes  as  security  for  his  debt, 
and  returned  answer  to  sell  and  remit,  it  was  but  natural  that  he 
should  hereafter  be  very  excitable  under  such  teachings,  and  de- 
nounce them  as  incendiary  and  fanatical.  The  bitterness  of  Southern 
slaveholders  was  tempered  by  many  considerations  of  kindness  for 
servants  born  in  their  houses,  or  upon  their  estates  ;  but  the  North- 
ern slaveholder  traded  in  men  and  women  whom  he  never  saw, 
and  of  whose  separations,  tears,  and  miseries  he  determined  never 
to  hear. 

The  great  consolatory  doctrine  that  soothed  the  consciences  both 
of  Northern  and  Southern  slaveholders  was  that  the  negro  was  unfit 
for  any  other  condition  than  that  of  slavery  ;  incapable  of  culture, 
education,  and  self -guidance,  and  therefore,  both  North  and  South, 
efforts  to  educate  him  aroused  special  opposition  and  resistance. 

One  of  the  leaders  in  this  Canterbury  affair  expressed  briefly 
the  sense  of  the  whole  pro-slavery  party  North  and  South  :  "  We  are 
not  merely  opposed  to  that  school.  We  mean  that  there  shall  never 
be  such  a  school  set  up  anywhere  in  our  State.  The  colored  people 
never  can  rise  from  a  menial  condition  in  this  country  ;  they  ought 
not  to  be  permitted  to  rise  here.  They  are  an  inferior  race  of 
beings,  and  never  can  or  ought  to  be  recognized  as  the  equals  of  the 
whites.  Let  the  niggers  be  sent  back  to  Africa,  and  there  improve 
themselves  as  much  as  they  may.  The  condition  of  the  colored 
population  of  our  country  can  never  be  essentially  improved  on  this 
continent." 

This  was  the  vital  point  of  the  conflict,  briefly  stated.  The 
abolitionists  set  themselves,  therefore,  to  the  education  of  the  black 
race. 

Oberlin  College,  founded  in  1835,  in  Oberlin,  Ohio,  was  the  first 
permanent  endowed  institution  avowedly  opened  to  give  impartial 
privileges  of  education  without  regard  to  color.  In  our  national 
capital  a  brave,  heroic  woman,  named  Myrtella  Miner,  consecrated 
her  life  to  founding  a  school  for  the  young  colored  women  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  who  had  hitherto  been  left  to  ignorance  and 


608  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

vice.  Miss  Miner  wore  out  her  strength  and  shortened  her  life  in 
this  cause,  but  the  school  she  founded  still  exists,  and  is  doing  a 
good  work  in  Washington.  In  memory  of  her  heroism  the  ladies' 
hall  in  Howard  University  is  called  Miner  Hall.  Let  her  memory 
be  blessed  ! 

In  1855  John  G.  Fee,  the  son  of  a  Kentucky  slaveholder,  founded 
in  the  little  village  of  Berea,  in  Madison  County,  Kentucky,  a  school 
in  which  white  and  colored  were  to  be  admitted  to  equal  privi- 
leges. 

Young  Fee  renewed  in  his  experience  the  virtues  and  the  perse- 
cutions of  the  primitive  Christians.  For  preaching  the  duty  of 
emancipation  and  the  sinfulness  of  slavery  in  his  native  State,  he 
was  disinherited  by  his  father.  His  whole  private  patrimony  he 
expended  in  redeeming  a  slave  woman,  whom  his  father  had  sold 
away  from  her  husband  into  Southern  bondage.  The  woman  was  a 
member  of  the  same  Christian  church  with  himself.  Her  ransom 
left  to  Fee  only  a  pittance  for  self-support,  and  he  became  a  mis- 
sionary under  the  care  of  the  American  Missionary  Society,  a  so- 
ciety formed  on  expressly  antislavery  principles.  In  his  labors 
young  Fee  encountered  the  fury  of  mob-violence.  Two  or  three 
times  he  was  seized,  his  colored  assistant  brutally  flogged  before  his 
eyes,  and  himself,  with  rope  adjusted  round  his  neck,  threatened 
with  hanging,  unless  he  pledged  himself  to  abandon  his  enterprise 
and  leave  the  State.  With  Christian  calmness  he  kneeled  down, 
saying  :  "  I  can  bear  any  suffering,  but  I  will  give  no  such  pledges  "  ; 
and  to-day  Berea  College,  with  an  endowment  of  between  eighty  and 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  is  the  monument  of  his  perseverance. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  until  the  time  of  the  late  war  the  condi- 
tion of  the  African  race  in  these  States  was,  for  the  most  part,  a 
condition  of  hopeless  bondage  to  ignorance.  The  efforts  for  their 
education  were  a  few  twinkling,  scattered  stars  in  a  night  of  ray- 
less  darkness. 

Here  we  must  not  omit  to  do  justice  to  a  large  class  of  conscien- 
tious Christians  among  the  Southern  slaveholders,  who  felt  deeply 
and  oppressively  their  responsibility  to  their  slaves,  and  labored 
sincerely  to  impart  instruction  to  them  within  the  limits  allowed  by 
law.  Occasionally  individuals  were  found  who  took  upon  them- 
selves the  responsibility  of  disregarding  the  penalties  of  law,  and 
teaching  their  slaves  to  read  and  write  ;  but,  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case,  such  instances  were  exceptional.  Yet  undoubtedly  the 
kindly  relations  engendered  between  servants  and  masters  and  mis- 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  FEEEDMEN.  609 

tresses,  in  these  efforts  to  impart  Christian  instruction,  were  the 
reason  why  there  was  no  painful  uprising  or  insurrection  attending 
the  war.  Christianity,  however  imperfectly  apprehended,  was  a 
bond  of  peace  between  masters  and  servants. 

At  last  came  the  war,  and  in  the  beginning  of  that  conflict 
the  best  political  friends  of  the  African  race,  the  antislavery  Presi- 
dent and  Cabinet,  and  all  concerned  in  the  Government,  took  pains 
to  affirm  that  emancipation  was  no  part  of  the  object  or  intention 
of  that  war. 

But  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  liberation  of  the  slave  was 
the,  object  and  intention  of  "  Him  that  ruleth  in  the  armies  of 
heaven."  The  cause  of  the  African  was  pleaded  according  to  his 
fashion  who  hath  said,  "By  fire  and  sword  will  the  Lord  plead 
with  all  flesh,  and  the  slain  of  the  Lord  shall  be  many." 

The  time  came  when  the  nation  was  forced  into  emancipation 
as  a  war  measure,  and,  having  liberated  the  slave,  she  enrolled  him 
in  her  armies.  Having  done  this,  the  national  honor  became  pledged 
to  the  protection  of  the  race  thus  set  free,  and  the  right  of  suffrage 
and  the  provisions  of  the  civil-rights  bill  followed  as  a  necessary 
consequence. 

For  years  patriots,  statesmen,  conscientious  and  Christian  men, 
had  toiled  and  agonized  over  the  inscrutable  problem,  How  could 
slavery  be  abolished  without  ruin  to  the  country  ?  Madison,  Jef- 
ferson, Washington,  all  had  their  schemes — all  based  on  the  idea 
that  after  emancipation  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  whites 
and  the  blacks  to  live  harmoniously  together.  Sudden  emancipa- 
tion was  spoken  of  as  something  involving  danger,  bloodshed,  and 
violence  ;  and  yet,  as  no  one  could  propose  a  feasible  system  of 
preparation,  the  drift  of  the  Southern  mind  had  come  to  be  toward 
indefinite  perpetuation  and  extension. 

Our  emancipation  was  forced  upon  us — it  was  sudden  ;  it  gave 
no  time  for  preparation,  and  our  national  honor  forced  us  to  give, 
not  only  emancipation,  but  the  rights  and  defenses  of  citizenship. 
This  was  the  position  in  which  the  war  left  us.  We  had  four 
million  new  United  States  citizens  in  our  Union,  without  property, 
without  education,  with  such  morals  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
legal  status  in  which  they  had  been  kept ;  they  were  surrounded  by 
their  former  white  owners,  every  way  embittered  toward  them,  and 
in  no  wise  disposed  to  smooth  their  path  to  liberty  and  competence. 

That  in  such  a  sudden  and  astounding  change  there  should  have 
been  struggle  and  conflict ;  that  the  reconstruction  of  former  slave 


610  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

States,  in  such  astonishingly  new  conditions  of  society,  should  have 
been  with  some  difficulty,  wrath,  and  opposition  ;  that  there  should 
have  been  contentions,  mistakes,  mismanagements,  and  plenty  of 
undesirable  events  to  make  sensation  articles  for  the  daily  press, 
was  to  be  expected. 

But  wherever  upon  God's  earth  was  such  an  unheard-of  revolu- 
tion in  the  state  of  human  society  accomplished  with  so  little  that 
was  to  be  deprecated  ? 

For  in  this  year,  1878,  certain  propositions  of  very  great  signifi- 
cance bear  assertion,  and  can  be  maintained  by  ample  proof  : 

1.  The  cotton  crop  raised  by  free  labor  is  the  largest  by  some 
millions  that  ever  has  been  raised  in  the  United  States.  That  set- 
tles the  question  as  to  the  free-labor  system. 

2.  The  legal  status  of  the  negro  is  universally  conceded  as  a 
■finality  by  the  leading  minds  of  the  South. 

3.  The  common-school  system  has  been  established  throughout 
the  Southern  States,  and  recognized  in  theory  by  the  wisest  South- 
ern men  as  to  be  applied  impartially  to  whites  and  blacks. 

4.  All  of  the  large  religious  denominations  are  conducting  edu- 
cational movements  among  the  f reedmen  on  a  large  scale.  There 
are  scattered  through  the  Southern  States,  under  the  patronage  of 
differentd  enominations,  thirty-nine  chartered  and  endowed  institu- 
tions for  the  higher  education  of  colored  people  as  teachers,  minis- 
ters, physicians,  farmers,  and  mechanics.  Besides  these,  there  are 
sixty-nine  schools  of  a  lower  grade.  It  is  calculated  that  in  the  last 
sixteen  years  twenty  million  dollars  has  been  contributed  and  in- 
vested in  the  work  of  educating  the  freedmen. 

5.  Leading  and  influential  men  at  the  South  are  in  many  cases 
openly  patrons  of  these  educational  efforts.  Several  of  these  insti- 
tutions have  been  generously  assisted  by  the  States  in  which  they 
are  founded.  The  last  reports  of  all  these  institutions  represent 
them  as  in  a  successful  and  flourishing  condition. 

6.  The  colored  race  is  advancing  in  material  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. 

The  bounds  of  an  article  are  too  limited  for  the  abundance  of 
proof  that  might  be  cited  under  these  heads. 

"We  shall  do  our  best  to  select  from  this  abundance,  and  in  the 
first  place  we  shall  consider  what  is  being  done  for  the  education  of 
the  colored  race  by  the  common-school  system. 

In  1867  Congress  created  a  National  Bureau  of  Education  in 
Washington,  to  collect  statistics  upon  education  and  diffuse  such 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  FREEDMEN.  611 

information  as  shall  aid  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  efficient  school  systems. 

The  first  report  of  the  Commissioner,  in  1870,  contains  this 
passage  (p.  13)  : 

The  information  contained  in  the  accompanying  papers,  in  regard  to  edu- 
cation in  the  States  where  emancipation  has  lately  taken  effect,  contains  fea- 
tures in  marked  distinction  from  those  where  freedom  has  been  longer  uni- 
versal. It  is  gratifying  that  slavery  exists  nowhere  any  longer  in  the  land, 
to  close  the  door  effectually  against  universal  education.  It  is  gratifying  to 
observe  the  avidity  with  which  those  lately  slaves  have  sought  the  primer 
and  the  means  of  higher  instruction.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the  large- 
hearted  Peabody  and  many  benevolent  associations  have  done  so  much  to 
facilitate  and  encourage  education  among  all  classes  in  the  South.  It  is 
gratifying  to  reflect  that  the  Government,  through  the  Freedman's  Bureau, 
has  accomplished  results  so  vast  in  this  direction,  being  able  to  show  that  in 
July  last,  in  day-  and  night-schools,  regularly  and  irregularly  reported,  11ft,- 
581  pupils  had  been  in  attendance.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  under  the 
restoration  policy  of  Congress  the  reorganized  State  governments  have  adopt- 
ed Constitutions  making  obligatory  the  establishment  and  conduct  of  free 
public  schools  for  all  the  children  of  school  age,  and  that  laws  have  been 
enacted  and  the  work  of  education  so  generally  commenced  under  them,  or- 
ganizing superintendence,  employing  teachers,  and  building  schoolhouses, 
introducing  here  and  there  the  germs  of  systems  which  have  been  tried  else- 
where and  proved  most  successful. 

The  report  then  goes  on  to  mention  each  Southern  State  in  detail, 
from  which  it  appears  that  a  movement  for  common  schools  had 
been  set  on  foot  in  every  one  of  the  Southern  States,  but  was  meet- 
ing with  active  and  powerful  resistance.  It  was  a  new  movement ; 
the  States  were  all  poor,  embarrassed  by  the  results  of  the  war,  and 
little  disposed  to  submit  to  any  tax  for  that  purpose,  and,  as  usual, 
those  were  most  opposed  who  most  needed  education.  The  report 
of  1871  shows  the  same  conflict.  It  reports  an  earnest  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  colored  people  for  education,  and  in  many  sections  a 
blind  prejudice  against  any  efforts  to  give  it  to  them.  The  work 
of  building  schoolhouses  for  the  colored  people  and  of  supporting 
teachers  was  divided  between  the  Freedman's  Bureau  and  the  vari- 
ous religious  bodies  whose  missionaries  were  in  the  field. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  difficulty  of  securing  common-school  pro- 
vision for  the  colored  population  was  only  part  and  parcel  of  the 
objection  to  the  common-school  system  itself  in  the  Southern  States. 
The  men  who  have  gallantly  fought  that  battle  for  the  whites  were 
the  wisest,  the  most  enlightened  in  their  several  States,  and  were 


612  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

fully  sensible  of  the  need  of  education  for  the  colored  race  ;  but 
they  had  first  to  conquer  the  prejudices  of  an  unenlightened  commu- 
nity against  any  system  of  common-school  instruction.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1878,  a  Southern  Educational  Convention  was  held  in  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  with  a  view  to  memorializing  Congress  for  aid  in  popular 
education.  Over  a  hundred  delegates  from  the  eight  following 
States  were  present,  viz.,  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri. 

A  noticeable  paragraph  in  the  memorial  is  the  following  : 

Resolved,  That  as  the  educational  laws  of  the  several  States  represented 
by  us  make  no  discriminations  in  favor  of  or  against  the  children  of  any  class 
of  citizens,  and  as  those  charged  with  the  administration  of  these  laws  have 
endeavored,  in  the  past,  to  have  them  carried  into  effect  impartially,  so  do 
we  pledge  ourselves  to  use  our  influence  to  secure  even-handed  justice  to  all 
classes  of  citizens  in  the  application  of  any  educational  funds  provided  by  the 
national  Government. 

In  another  part  of  their  memorial  they  say  : 

In  the  altered  condition  of  society,  brought  about  by  the  late  war,  every 
man  is  a  voter;  and  the  safety  of  republican  institutions  depends  upon  ex- 
tending to  the  masses  the  benefits  of  education. 

On  the  ground  of  the  large  addition  of  population  to  be  taught 
in  the  persons  of  the  freedmen,  and  of  the  losses  by  depreciation  of 
property  consequent  on  the  war,  they  ask  for  a  larger  government- 
al aid  than  would  be  given  to  the  settled  Northern  States. 

What  is  to  be  noticed  in  this  appeal  is,  that  it  fully  assumes  on 
the  part  of  these  States  the  duty  of  giving  equal  school  privileges 
to  all  children  of  the  State,  without  regard  to  color  or  condition.  In 
short,  in  regard  to  this  branch  of  the  subject,  our  conviction,  based 
on  an  examination  of  the  yearly  reports  submitted  to  the  National 
Bureau,  is  that,  in  the  main,  the  leaders  of  State  education  at  the 
South  have  been  well  disposed  to  the  colored  race  ;  that  in  theory 
they  regard  them  entitled  to  an  equal  share  in  State  education,  and 
have  extended  it  to  them  in  practice  so  far  as  the  means  have  been 
in  their  power. 

We  come  now  to  consider  what  has  been  done  for  the  freedmen 
by  the  Christian  Church  in  America. 

Very  early  in  the  war  it  was  decided  to  receive  and  protect 
fugitive  slaves,  and  our  armies  became  cities  of  refuge  for  them. 
"  Their  advance,"  says  a  writer,  "  was  a  signal  for  a  rally  of  slaves 
from  all  the  country  round  ;  they  flocked  in  upon  the  line  of  march 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  FREEDMEN.  613 

by  bridle-paths  and  across  fields — old  men  on  crutches,  babies  on 
their  mothers'  backs,  women  wearing  cast-off  blue  jackets  of  Yankee 
cavalry -men,  boys  in  abbreviated  trousers  of  rebel  gray — some- 
times lugging  a  bundle  of  household  goods,  sometimes  riding  an 
old  mule  borrowed  from  *  massa,'  but  of tener  empty-handed,  with 
nothing  whatever  to  show  for  a  lifetime  of  unrewarded  toil.  But 
they  were  free !  And  with  what  swinging  of  ragged  hats,  and 
tumult  of  rejoicing  hearts,  and  fervent  '  God  bless  you ! '  they 
greeted  their  deliverers  !  "  The  year  of  jubilee,  for  which  they  had 
prayed  and  waited  so  many  years,  was  come  ! 

In  time,  four  million  of  these  bondmen  were  made  free  by  the 
war  power.  The  same  writer  from  whom  we  have  quoted  thus 
sketches  their  condition  :  "  They  were  homeless,  penniless,  igno- 
rant, improvident ;  unprepared  in  every  way  for  the  dangers  and 
duties  of  freedom.  Self-reliance  they  never  had  had  the  opportu- 
nity to  learn,  and,  suddenly  left  to  shift  for  themselves,  they  were 
at  the  mercy  of  knaves  ready  to  cheat  them  out  of  their  honest 
earnings.  They  had  been  kept  all  their  lives  in  a  school  of  immo- 
rality, so  that  even  church-membership  was  no  evidence  that  one 
was  not  a  thief,  a  liar,  or  a  libertine." 

Their  former  masters  were  so  impoverished  by  their  emancipa- 
tion and  other  losses  of  the  war  that  they  had  little  ability— ;and . 
were  so  exasperated  that  they  had  less  disposition — to  help  them. 

But  poor,  ignorant,  and  simple  as  this  emancipated  mass  were, 
they  differed  in  one  respect  from  the  masses  liberated  by  the 
French  Revolution,  and  from  all  other  suddenly  liberated  masses 
of  which  we  have  read  in  history.  Their  enthusiasm  and  impulse 
was  not  for  plunder  or  for  revenge,  or  for  drink,  or  any  form  of 
animal  indulgence,  but  for  education.  They  rushed  not  to  the  grog- 
shop but  to  the  schoolroom — they  cried  for  the  spelling-book  as  for 
bread,  and  pleaded  for  teachers  as  a  necessary  of  life.  This  enthusi- 
asm to  learn  on  the  part  of  the  liberated  slaves  was  met  by  an  equal 
enthusiasm  to  teach  on  the  part  of  Northern  Christians.  Every 
religious  denomination  sent  its  teachers — Unitarians  and  Orthodox 
were  here  of  one  heart  and  mind,  and  their  teachers  followed  the 
course  of  the  armies,  and  penetrated  wherever  they  could  find  pro- 
tection. Long  before  the  war  closed,  there  were  teachers  and 
schools  in  our  camps  and  in  all  the  region  where  our  armies  pro- 
tected the  settlements  of  fugitive  slaves. 

The  nation  took  these  people   as  her  wards,  and  appointed  a 
Freedman's  Bureau  to  superintend  their  affairs — to  regulate  their 
vol.  cxxviii. — no.  271.  40 


6X4  TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

wages  and  work,  and  to  provide  for  them  schoolrooms,  schools,  and 
teachers. 

We  have  before  us,  through  the  kkdness  of  General  Howard,  a 
volume  of  the  reports  of  this  Bureau  from  January,  1866,  to  July 
1,  1870. 

The  first  report  says  :  "  The  desire  of  the  freedmen  for  knowl- 
edge has  not  been  overstated.  Their  freedom  has  given  a  wonder- 
ful stimulus  to  all  effort,  indicating  a  vitality  that  augurs  well  for 
their  future." 

The  report  goes  on  to  say  that  "  all  classes,  even  those  advanced 
in  life,  are  beginning  the  alphabet — coming  to  evening  and  Sabbath 
schools,  and  may  be  seen  along  railroads,  or  off  duty,  as  servants  on 
steamboats,  or  in  hotels,  earnestly  studying  their  spelling-books. 
Regiments  of  colored  soldiers  are  all  improving  and  learning — and 
the  officers  deserve  great  respect  for  their  efforts  for  the  education 
of  their  men.  The  128th  U.  S.  Colored  Troops,  at  Beaufort,  were 
found  gathered  into  school  in  a  neat  camp  schoolhouse,  erected  by 
the  regiment,  and  taught  by  regularly  detailed  teachers  from  the 
line  officers — the  colonel  commanding  superintending  the  arrange- 
ments with  deep  interest."  The  report  goes  through  each  Southern 
State  in  detail,  giving  an  account  in  each  of  the  general  educational 
revival.     One  passage  is  specially  noticeable : 

"  Through  the  entire  South  efforts  are  being  made  by  the  col- 
ored people  to  'educate  themselves?  In  the  absence  of  teachers, 
they  are  determined  to  be  self-taught,  and  everywhere  some  element- 
ary book,  or  fragments  of  it,  may  be  seen  in  the  hands  of  negroes. 
They  communicate  to  each  other  that  which  they  learn,  and  with 
very  little  learning  many  take  to  teaching.  Not  only  are  individuals 
seen  at  study  under  the  most  untoward  circumstances,  but  in  many 
places  I  have  found  native  schools,  often  rude  and  imperfect,  but  there 
they  are,  a  group  of  all  ages  trying  to  learn.  Some  young  man  or 
woman,  some  old  preacher,  in  cellar,  shed,  or  corner  of  negro  meet- 
ing-house, with  spelling-book  in  hand,  is  their  teacher.  .  .  .  Again," 
says  the  reporter,  "  I  saw  schools  of  higher  order  at  Goldsboro, 
North  Carolina  ;  two  young  colored  men,  who  but  a  little  time 
before  had  begun  to  learn  themselves,  had  gathered  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pupils,  all  quite  orderly  and  hard  at  study."  The  report 
also  speaks  of  schools  taught  by  colored  men  at  Charleston,  Savan- 
nah, and  New  Orleans.  One  in  the  latter  city,  he  says,  would  bear 
comparison  with  any  Northern  school ;  he  says  that  in  this  school 
very  creditable  specimens  of  writing  were  shown,  and  all  the  older 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  FREEDMEN.  615 

classes  could  recite  or  read  fluently  both  in  French  and  English. 
This  was  a  free  school  wholly  supported  by  colored  people.  He 
says  that  he  gave  special  pains  to  ascertaining  facts  upon  this  sub- 
ject, and  reports  that  schools  of  this  kind  exist  in  all  the  large 
places,  and  were  making  their  appearance  through  the  entire  South- 
ern country.  The  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  South  Carolina  as- 
sured him  that  there  was  no  place  of  any  size  where  such  a  school 
was  not  attempted  by  the  colored  people.  He  remarks,  in  conclu- 
sion: "This  is  a  wonderful  state  of  things.  We  have  just  emerged 
from  a  terrific  war — peace  is  not  yet  declared,  there  is  scarcely  a 
beginning  of  reorganized  society  at  the  South — yet  here  is  a  people 
long  imbruted  by  slavery  and  the  most  despised  of  any  on  earth, 
whose  chains  are  no  sooner  broken  than  they  spring  to  their  feet,  an 
exceeding  great  army,  clothing  themselves  with  intelligence.  What 
other  people  have  shown  such  a  passion  for  education  ?  " 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  is  a  report  in  1866 — in  the 
very  incipiency  of  the  enterprise.  These  semi-annual  reports  to  the 
Freedman's  Bureau  contain  a  most  wonderful  and  interesting  his- 
tory of  their  progress  toward  education  and  competence. 

In  the  last  report  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau,  which  closed  in 
1870,  they  speak  of  247,000  children  under  systematic  instruction, 
with  9,307  teachers  and  4,239  schools.  They  also  record  in  the 
Freedman's  Savings  Bank,  the  total  deposits  of  freedmen,  from  1866 
to  1870,  as  $16,960,336.62. 

Haeeiet  Beechee  Stowe. 


V. 

SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO, 


In  response  to  reiterated  urgent  appeals  from  the  Republic  of 
San  Domingo  for  recognition  by  the  United  States  Government  and 
for  protection  against  the  attacks  of  its  next  neighbor,  the  Republic 
of  Hayti,  President  Polk's  Cabinet  in  the  spring  of  1846  resolved  to 
send  out  an  agent  who  should  report  upon  the  condition  of  the 
Dominican  Republic  socially,  industrially,  and  politically,  its  naval 
and  military  forces,  and  the  real  value  of  certain  privileges  which 
the  Dominicans  were  willing  to  accord  to  the  Government  and  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States.  This  honorable  commission  having  been 
intrusted  to  me,  I  in  April  sailed  from  Pensacola  in  the  United 
States  brig  Porpoise,  and  on  May  6th  we  dropped  anchor  off  the 
ancient  city  of  San  Domingo.  The  commander  of  the  Porpoise, 
Lieutenant  Hunt,  fired  a  salute  in  honor  of  the  Dominican  flag,  and 
soon  we  were  boarded  by  a  ragged  officer  from  the  castle,  who  came 
to  borrow  the  powder  necessary  for  a  response. 

Our  first  duty  was  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  President,  General  Pedro 
Santanna,  a  light  mulatto  about  forty  years  of  age,  who  received  us 
in  his  shirt-sleeves,  with  a  bandana  handkerchief  bound  round  his 
head,  nor  did  he  appear  to  be  in  the  least  disconcerted  by  the  splen- 
dor of  our  uniforms. 

Only  a  few  years  before,  San  Domingo  had  been  visited  by  Mr. 
Hogan,  who,  like  myself,  had  been  sent  to  report  on  the  state  of  the 
country,  and  President  Santanna  was  much  surprised  that  our  Gov- 
ernment should  now  send  another  commissioner  on  the  same  errand. 
However,  his  Excellency  promised  to  give  me  every  facility  for 
traveling  over  the  island,  and  regretted  the  inability  of  his  Govern- 
ment to  bear  the  expense  ;  "but,"  said  he,  "we  have  no  money." 

Indeed,  the  Dominican  finances  were  in  a  deplorable  condition. 
The  small  amount  of  specie  in  the  country  was  in  the  hands  of  Jews. 
The  currency  consisted  of  paper  and  copper  tokens,  and  twenty 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  617 

paper  dollars  were  equivalent  to  one  in  silver.  Whenever  the  Gov- 
ernment wished  to  pay  off  its  debts,  it  would  raise  the  price  of  cop- 
per coin.  Directly  afterward  copper  would  fall  and  paper  would  be 
in  the  ascendant.  Those  speculators  who  were  informed  of  the 
secrets  of  the  Treasury  made  money  by  both  of  these  operations,  but 
the  mass  of  the  people  were  always  sufferers.  Everywhere  were  to 
be  seen  evidences  of  the  abject  poverty  to  which  the  people  were 
reduced  ;  their  once  flourishing  commerce  had  been  annihilated ; 
education  was  a  farce  ;  and  even  the  ceremonial  of  their  religion 
had  fallen  into  neglect. 

Horses  were  needed  for  my  proposed  expedition,  but  with  the 
best  endeavors  I  only  succeeded  in  procuring  five  sorry  beasts,  not 
over  forty-four  inches  in  height — in  fact,  not  much  larger  than  good- 
sized  mastiffs.  The  price  paid  for  these  animals  was,  in  appearance, 
exorbitantly  high — twenty-five  hundred  dollars  currency  for  the  lot — 
and  the  transaction  reminded  me  of  the  stories  told  of  our  grand- 
fathers going  to  market  with  a  basketful  of  Continental  money.  One 
of  my  horses  was  burdened  with  the  currency  requisite  to  pay  my 
daily  expenses.  I  had  thousands  in  one-dollar  notes,  each  the  size 
of  a  sheet  of  commercial  note-paper.  But  this  large  sum,  when  re- 
duced to  its  real  value,  amounted  only  to  seven  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  Spanish  dollars,  which,  however,  I  found  to  be  in  excess  of  my 
wants  ;  and  I  was  even  enabled  to  indulge  in  all  the  luxuries  afford- 
ed by  the  wayside  inns — bananas,  yams,  ginger,  tea,  and  occasionally 
an  egg. 

A  detailed  account  of  my  peregrinations  through  the  Dominican 
Republic  would  be  instructive,  while  many  of  the  ludicrous  inci- 
dents would  require  the  humor  of  a  Mark  Twain  to  do  them  jus- 
tice ;  but  my  space  is  limited,  and  I  can  deal  only  in  generalities. 

From  its  historical  associations  the  city  of  San  Domingo  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  in  the  New  World,  and  Irving  and  other 
writers  have  invested  it  and  its  surroundings  with  an  air  of  romance. 
But,  for  those  who  see  it  in  its  present  condition,  unless  their  imagi- 
native faculty  is  strongly  developed,  the  romance  appears  to  have 
vanished. 

The  great  cathedral,  commenced  in  1514  by  Diego  Columbus,  in 
which  the  ashes  of  the  great  navigator  once  rested,  still  remains, 
besides  ten  or  twelve  churches  and  chapels  ;  and  the  ruins  of  the 
Jesuit  College,  of  the  palace  of  Diego  Columbus,  and  of  the  convent 
of  San  Francisco,  to  this  day  attest  their  former  grandeur. 

The  outer  walls  of  the  city  are  a  fine  specimen  of  Spanish  engi- 


618  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

neering,  though  allowed  to  go  to  ruin,  and  the  sea-wall,  with  its 
once  imposing  line  of  guns,  must  have  bidden  defiance  in  the  olden 
time  to  many  a  hostile  squadron,  though  it  could  not  resist  the  at- 
tack of  Drake,  who  nearly  destroyed  it  in  1586. 

Good  houses  are  few  and  far  between,  the  streets  are  ill  paved 
and  hardly  safe  after  nightfall,  and  the  people,  sunk  in  poverty,  are 
only  interesting  from  the  humility  with  which  they  bear  their  mis- 
fortunes.    So  much  for  the  city  of  to-day. 

The  harbor  of  Osima,  once  the  emporium  of  an  important  com- 
merce with,Spain,  now  has  not  water  enough  to  admit  a  ship  of  war, 
and  is  accessible  only  to  very  small  merchant  vessels. 

Before  leaving  the  city  for  the  interior,  I  received  the  following 
communication  from  the  Dominican  Secretary  of  State,  who  did  all 
in  his  power  to  facilitate  my  investigations  : 

J5anto  Domingo,  May  14, 1846. 

Sir  :  I  have  received  your  note  of  the  14th  inst.,  in  which  you  request  a 
passport  to  travel  through  the  interior  of  our  republic.  .  .  . 

My  government  not  only  is  disposed  to  grant  the  passport  you  have  soli- 
cited, but  also  charges  me  to  perform  whatsoever  you  may  esteem  necessary 
to  the  success  of  your  enterprise ;  and  accordingly  we  offer  you  a  guide  to 
accompany  you.  .  .  . 

As  one  of  the  objects  of  your  Government  is  to  inform  themselves  of  the 
disposition  of  this  Government  and  people  with  respect  to  friendly  and  com- 
mercial relations  between  the  two  countries,  the  undersigned  is  authorized 
to  inform  you  that,  inasmuch  as  this  Government  has  no  other  desire  than  to 
see  the  advancement  of  the  country  in  the  path  of  civilization,  they  will  neg- 
lect no  means  compatible  with  the  national  honor  to  obtain  the  closest  rela- 
tions with  all  civilized  people,  and  above  all  with  those  who,  on  account  of 
their  physical  position  and  their  political  institutions,  are  apparently  des- 
tined to  form  only  one  family ;  and  as  regards  the  people  you  can  judge  from 
your  own  observation  their  good  feelings  and  their  morality. 

God  preserve  you  many  years ! 
[Signed]  Ricabdo  MnrcA. 

To  D.  D.  Pobteb,  Commissioner  from  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  1846, 1  left  the  historical  city  of  San  Do- 
mingo, accompanied  by  an  officer  of  the  Government  as  guide,  as 
far  as  the  town  of  Azua,  and  a  muleteer  to  take  care  of  my  animals, 
and  with  the  prospect  of  hearing  nothing  from  home  until  I  arrived 
at  Porto  Plata,  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  where  the  Porpoise 
was  to  call  for  me  in  one  month's  time  in  case  I  did  not  join  her 
earlier  at  Samana  Bay. 

There  was  a  very  small  specimen  of  a  newspaper  published  in 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  619 

the  city,  but  no  post  to  cany  it  through  the  country,  and  therefore 
I  was  not  likely  to  be  much  edified  by  the  press,  whose  motto  might 
well  have  been,  "  Here  no  one  writes  because  no  one  reads,  and  no 
one  reads  because  no  one  writes."  In  fact,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, I  was  penetrating  an  unknown  region,  where  nothing  from 
the  outside  world  would  be  likely  to  reach  me  even  at  the  stopping- 
places  on  my  route. 

Once  outside  the  city  walls,  I  plunged  into  a  wild,  uncultivated 
country,  dotted  with  the  ruins  of  once  flourishing  haciendas  which 
attested  the  wealth  and  magnificence  of  the  old  hidalgos.  Here 
the  followers  of  Columbus  and  their  descendants  had  lived  in  luxury 
and  state,  but  now  there  was  nothing  to  mark  the  site  of  their  once 
splendid  abodes  but  shapeless  heaps  of  stones. 

A  few  miles  from  the  city  we  crossed  the  Hayni  and  the  Nigua 
Rivers,  two  small  streams.  In  one  of  them  we  saw  two  mulatto 
boys  washing  out  gold — the  only  sign  of  human  life  visible  in  the 
country  around.  Their  gleanings  for  the  day  amounted  in  value  to 
perhaps  twenty-five  cents,  but  it  was  gold,  and  with  them  that  was 
a  paramount  consideration,  for  this  mixed  Spanish  race  seem  to 
inherit  the  mania  for  the  precious  metals  from  their  Castilian  pro- 
genitors. 

Along  the  banks  of  these  rivers  fluttered  flocks  of  birds  of  gor- 
geous plumage,  and  numerous  wild  fowl  swam  so  near  our  horses  as 
we  forded  the  streams  that  I  could  have  shot  them  with  my  pistol, 
for  the  natives  having  no  guns  do  not  molest  them,  and  birds  of  all 
kinds  are  consequently  quite  tame. 

The  few  people  residing  along  the  road  were  negroes  of  the 
lower  order,  who  lounged  at  the  entrances  to  their  reed  huts,  too 
indolent  to  cultivate  the  fertile  soil  on  which  they  dwelt. 

Yams  and  bananas  were  supplied  by  nature  ;  each  family  pos- 
sessed a  few  pigs,  a  goat  or  two  afforded  them  milk,  the  bread-fruit 
tree  furnished  shade  and  the  staff  of  life,  and  the  flower  of  the  fur- 
tree  material  for  mattresses.  The  people  were  cleanly  in  person  and 
courteous  in  manner,  and  with  Spanish  hyperbole  "placed  every- 
thing they  owned  in  the  world  at  our  disposal "  ;  but  the  perform- 
ance did  by  no  means  square  with  the  profession. 

Toward  evening  we  reached  San  Christoval,  twenty-five  miles 
from  San  Domingo.  I  rode  up  to  the  quarters  of  the  commanding 
officer  of  the  troops  of  the  district,  an  ancient  negro,  to  whom  I 
delivered  my  circular  letter  of  introduction  from  President  San- 
tanna. 


620  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

The  General  scrutinized  the  document  very  carefully,  examined 
the  seal  a  dozen  times,  and  at  length  shouted  lustily  for  his  secre- 
tary, Don  Jose  Brune,  who  rushed  on  the  scene  in  a  state  of  undress 
befitting  the  climate,  followed  by  the  regiment  of  six  soldiers  and 
the  sentry  on  guards, 

The  whole  command  now  strove  in  vain  to  decipher  the  letter, 
and  after  an  hour  had  passed  the  document  was  stuck  in  the  sentry's 
hat-band,  while  the  General  disappeared  to  take  his  siesta. 

I  took  possession  of  his  front  room,  and  was  soon  fast  asleep  in 
my  hammock,  closely  watched  by  the  sentry,  the  first  duty,  no  doubt? 
that  he  had  performed  for  an  indefinite  period. 

The  old  General  was,  no  doubt,  much  put  out  by  my  coming,  be- 
cause it  interfered  with  the  trial  of  a  lawsuit  which  he  had  taken  out 
of  the  hands  of  an  alcalde.  The  subject  of  litigation  was  a  tres- 
pass committed  by  a  poor  old  donkey,  and,  from  what  I  saw  of  the 
mode  of  meting  out  justice  by  the  military  authorities  on  the  occa- 
sion, I  concluded  that  Coke  and  his  precedents  would  be  considered 
superfluous  in  this  part  of  the  world. 

At  daylight  next  morning,  I  started  to  visit  the  mines  of  San 
Christoval,  twenty-six  miles  from  the  town.  After  a  brisk  ride  of  five 
hours  we  reached  a  settlement  called  Tabblasso,  where  I  was  hospi- 
tably entertained  by  the  natives.  Wandering  rather  incautiously 
into  the  forest,  I  was  attacked  by  five  dogs,  and  so  roughly  used  by 
them  that  it  was  three  days  before  I  was  able  to  travel,  my  wounds 
being  in  the  mean  time  dressed  with  leaves  and  roots  from  the 
woods,  according  to  the  medical  system  of  the  people. 

These  dogs  afford  one  of  the  principal  means  of  livelihood  for  the 
natives  in  the  interior  of  San  Domingo,  who  depend  largely  upon 
the  flesh  of  the  wild  boar  for  food.  I  was  present  at  one  boar-hunt 
near  Tabblasso,  where  forty  dogs  overcame  a  huge  boar  with  tusks 
as  sharp  as  knives.  The  animal  squealed  as  lustily  as  any  other  of 
the  pig  family,  and  I  knew  from  sad  experience  exactly  how  he  felt. 

It  took  five  hours  of  hard  riding  to  bring  us  to  the  mine  of  San 
Christoval.  This  is  the  only  copper  mine  I  visited  while  on  the 
island,  though  I  passed  near  several  others  of  note.  All  these 
mines  are  reputed  to  be  of  great  value.  That  of  San  Christoval 
possesses  ore  veins  of  considerable  extent,  and  from  seven  to  four- 
teen feet  in  thickness,  which  yield  to  the  blowpipe  from  thirty  to 
forty  per  cent,  of  pure  copper.  Gold  has  been  found  in  the  copper 
in  sufficient  quantity,  it  is  asserted,  to  pay  for  working  the  mines. 
The  only  mode  of    transporting  the  product  to    San  Domingo 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  621 

(twenty-five  miles  distant)  would  be  by  panniers  on  the  backs  of 
mules. 

The  copper  mine  in  the  mountain  of  Maimon  is  spoken  of  as  the 
finest  in  the  Antilles — the  ore  yielding  from  forty  to  eighty  per 
cent,  of  pure  copper,  and  there  are  many  other  mines  of  this  metal 
in  good  repute  ;  in  fact,  the  island  is  filled  with  minerals. 

It  was  with  regret  that  I  bade  adieu  to  the  little  valley  of  Tab- 
blasso,  and,  after  a  ride  of  eleven  hours  over  a  parched  but  fertile 
country,  I  reached  Bani,  fifty-five  miles  distant.  The  population  of 
this  district  of  San  Christoval  was,  as  near  as  I  could  ascertain, 
7,000  souls,  3,960  of  whom  were  women.  One  third  of  the  popula- 
tion might  pass  for  white,  a  somewhat  larger  proportion  were  mu- 
lattoes,  and  the  remainder  negroes  of  the  most  pronounced  type, 
whom  all  authorities  agreed  in  declaring  to  be  anything  but  a 
blessing  to  the  country. 

Some  of  the  so-called  whites  are  the  proprietors  of  vast  estates, 
extending  from  the  seacoast  on  the  south  side  to  the  river  Yuna, 
comprising  rich  alluvial  soil,  covered  with  the  choicest  woods  of 
the  tropics,  and  valuable  mineral  lands.  This  land  could  have  been 
bought  at  an  average  price  of  one  cent  an  acre,  and  dear  enough  it 
was  at  that  when  we  consider  that  it  was  constantly  liable  to  the 
hostile  incursions  of  the  negroes  from  the  west  end  of  the  island. 

The  road  over  which  I  was  now  passing  had  shortly  before  been 
traversed  by  a  Dominican  army,  who  consumed  nearly  everything 
eatable  on  the  route,  so  that  we  began  to  suffer  greatly  for  want  of 
food  ;  but  we  could  get  water,  and  occasionally  a  few  bananas,  and 
so  we  managed  to  ward  off  starvation  until  we  arrived  at  Azua,  on 
the  24th  of  May,  after  eight  days  of  the  hardest  riding  I  ever  ex- 
perienced. 

"We  passed  through  several  pleasant  villages  on  the  way — Bani, 
with  a  hundred  inhabitants ;  Paya,  with  three  hundred ;  and  sev- 
eral times  crossed  the  beautiful  Nisao  River.  All  this  country  is 
famous  for  its  dye-woods,  and  its  mahogany  is  the  finest  in  the 
world ;  but  quantities  of  these  valuable  products  are  going  to  decay 
for  want  of  means  to  convey  them  to  the  coast. 

On  reaching  Azua  our  first  care  was  to  get  something  to  eat, 
our  next  to  purchase  a  new  supply  of  horses,  for  the  old  set  were 
worn  out,  not  having  been  properly  attended  to  by  my  worthless 
mulatto  muleteer,  who  merited  and  would  have  received  a  sound 
threshing  at  my  hands,  had  such  a  proceeding  comported  with  the 
dignity  of  a  United  States  commissioner. 


622  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

The  village  of  Azua  is  beautifully  situated  in  the  bight  of  the 
great  bay  of  Neyles,  in  whose  harbors  the  navies  of  the  world 
might  ride.  A  large  trade  in  mahogany  is  carried  on  at  this  place, 
and  the  surrounding  country  has  many  fine  plantations,  producing 
sugar-cane,  bananas,  etc. 

From  Azua  I  traveled  westward  for  some  days,  but,  finding  that 
my  natives  were  breaking  down  under  the  difficulties  of  the  road, 
I  returned  on  my  course,  and  took  the  path  from  Azua  across  the 
mountains  of  Maniel,  which  rise  2,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  which 
were  supposed  to  be  impassable  for  horses.  I  made  the  entire  march 
over  these  mountains  on  foot,  literally  working  my  passage,  for  in 
some  instances  the  horses  had  to  be  hoisted  over  declivities.  If 
there  was  any  road,  our  guide  would  not  show  it,  for  the  Domini- 
cans look  upon  the  Maniel  range  as  their  Gibraltar,  in  case  they 
should  be  overcome  at  all  other  places  by  the  Haytians.  In  fact,  a 
Leonidas  would  not  require  more  than  his  three  hundred  to  hold 
these  heights  against  a  mighty  army.  Five  hundred  Haytiens  once 
tried  to  force  the  passage,  and  were  slaughtered  almost  to  a  man. 

The  village  of  Maniel  is  situated  on  a  fertile  plateau  of  many 
thousand  acres,  producing  every  article  of  commerce  to  be  found  in 
the  island,  and,  from  its  height  above  the  sea,  enjoying  a  delightful 
climate,  averaging  in  the  month  of  May  75°  at  noon,  and  not  over 
60°  Fahr.  at  night.  Here  the  people  lived  in  perfect  comfort,  and 
in  as  high  a  grade  of  civilization  as  is  usually  to  be  found  in  the 
interior  of  a  West  India  Island,  or  as  could  be  expected  where  there 
is  an  almost  total  lack  of  education. 

After  a  sojourn  of  three  days  at  this  secluded  place,  I  started  on 
the  30th  of  May  to  go  up,  up,  up,  over  the  Lomas  Kemados.  The 
painful  and  toilsome  journey  over  these  hills — a  feat  seldom  at- 
tempted by  white  men,  and  dreaded  by  the  hardiest  natives — I 
shall  never  forget.  In  three  days  I  had  accomplished  the  task, 
crossing  the  Banilejos, -a  rapid  stream,  fifty-six  times  in  a  heavy 
rainstorm.  My  horses  were  under  water  a  dozen  times,  and  once 
we  were  carried  over  the  rapids  and  had  to  swim  for  our  lives. 
The  river-bed  was'  the  only  road,  and  we  had  often  to  pass  from 
one  side  to  the  other  to  avoid  deep  water,  and  to  obtain  a  footing 
for  the  horses.     Such  is  traveling  in  San  Domingo. 

My  fiat  currency  got  extremely  wet,  in  common  with  everything 
else;  so  I  halted  at  a  deserted  hut  in  the  forest,  and  spread  it  out  to 
dry,  to  the  amazement  of  flocks  of  paroquets,  which  hopped  about 
and  seemed  astonished  at  the  sight  of  so  much  wealth. 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  623 

The  country  through  which  I  then  was  toiling  is  as  much  a 
terra  incognita  to-day  as  it  was  three  centuries  ago.  The  native 
who  is  compelled  to  force  his  way  through  these  wilds  gladly  bids 
adieu  to  the  gloomy  forests  when  once  he  has  left  them  behind,  nor 
does  he  trouble  his  head  about  their  resources.  The  wealth  in  these 
hills  is,  however,  illimitable,  the  fertility  of  the  valleys  unsurpassed, 
and  thousands  might  here  enjoy  a  degree  of  luxury  unknown  to  the 
greater  portion  of  mankind.  Oranges,  plantains,  bananas,  coffee, 
cocoa,  all  grow  wild.  The  cotton-bush,  yielding  cotton  of  the  nan- 
king  tint  so  much  prized  in  China,  is  frequently  met  with.  There 
are  over  forty  different  trees  producing  woods  fit  for  furniture  and 
joiner-work,  and  coal  crops  out  at  many  points  from  the  hillsides. 
All  that  is  needed  is  American  energy  and  industry. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  recount  all  the  difficulties  and  dangers  I 
met  in  the  mountains,  but  I  finally  reached  the  valley  of  the  river 
Maimon  late  at  night,  and  took  up  my  quarters  in  a  hut  inhabited 
by  fourteen  negroes,  who  gave  me  space  to  swing  my  hammock. 

On  awaking  next  morning  I  found  to  my  horror  that  I  had  been 
sleeping  in  a  hut  inhabited  by  lepers,  and,  although  I  had  had  no- 
thing substantial  to  eat  for  twenty-four  hours,  I  rushed  out  of  the 
hovel,  and,  calling  to  my  muleteer  to  follow  with  the  animals,  I 
swam  across  the  river  in  my  haste  to  get  as  far  from  the  frightful 
disease  as  possible. 

After  I  had  gone  ten  miles  I  was  overtaken  by  one  of  the  negroes 
whom  I  had  so  unceremoniously  quitted.  He  brought  me  my  gold 
watch,  which  in  the  hurry  of  my  departure  I  had  left  hanging  on  a 
nail  in  the  hut ;  which  proves  that  a  man  may  be  a  leper  and  yet 
be  honest. 

The  next  day,  after  a  toilsome  ride,  I  reached  the  gold  mines  of 
Maimon,  which  I  had  come  a  good  deal  out  of  my  way  to  examine. 

I  saw  no  evidence  that  these  mines  had  ever  been  worked  ex- 
cept by  digging  into  the  sides  of  the  mountain,  the  depth  of  the 
excavations  in  no  case  exceeding  ten  feet,  by  a  width  of  twenty 
feet.  There  were  no  shafts  sunk  and  no  machinery,  and  I  could 
learn  nothing  on  the  spot  concerning  the  former  yield  or  the  history 
of  the  mine,  although  there  were  marvelous  reports  of  the  amount 
that  had  been  realized  here  ;  when  no  one  could  say. 

No  doubt  in  the  first  settlement  of  the  island  the  Spaniards  ex- 
tracted a  considerable  quantity  of  gold  from  these  mines  by  pressing 
the  poor  Indians  into  service  and  working  them  to  death.  The 
work  must  have  been  of  the  crudest  kind — mere  surface-digging — 


624  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

yet  we  are  informed  that  single  masses  of  ore,  one  containing 
$3,600  worth  of  gold,  another  $4,280  worth,  and  many  smaller  speci- 
mens, were  sent  to  Europe.  It  is  asserted  that  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Spaniards  the  yield  of  gold  from  two  mines  in  the 
department  of  Buenaventura  amounted  to  81,150,000  yearly ;  but 
the  mines  of  San  Domingo  have  doubtless  never  been  fairly  worked, 
and  would  yield  more  to  systematic  and  scientific  exploitation  than 
the  Spaniards  ever  realized  by  their  crude  and  wasteful  methods. 
Of  the  other  gold  mines  of  the  island  I  can  give  no  account.  They 
are  mentioned  by  the  various  historians  ;  and  Charlevoix,  in  parti- 
cular, declares  that  several  districts  of  the  island  abound  in  gold 
and  silver,  and  indeed  minerals  of  all  kinds,  which  is  doubtless  the 
fact,  as  we  may  infer  from  the  geological  formation  of  the  country. 

I  have  seen  quantities  of  coal  cropping  out  of  the  ground,  and 
iron  mines  enough  to  supply  the  West  Indies  if  they  could  be  made 
accessible. 

At  the  house  of  the  proprietor  of  the  gold  mines,  who  is  at  the 
same  time  the  owner  of  large  estates  on  the  Maimon  River,  with 
herds  of  cattle  and  every  comfort  in  life,  I  obtained  the  first  sub- 
stantial meal  I  had  eaten  since  leaving  the  city  of  San  Domingo. 
After  partaking  of  this  feast  I  pursued  my  journey,  along  the  banks 
of  the  Maimon  until  I  branched  off  on  the  road  to  Cotuy,  through 
one  of  the  loveliest  countries  I  ever  beheld,  and  struck  the  Yuna 
River,  which  disembogues  into  the  gulf  of  Samana  after  innumer- 
able windings  through  rich  valleys,  including  the  district  of  La 
Vega,  known  to  the  Spaniards  as  the  garden-spot  of  the  island. 
With  little  labor  this  river  could  be  cleared  of  its  obstructions, 
and  small  steamers  and  flatboats  could  transport  to  the  sea  the  im- 
mense quantities  of  coffee,  sugar,  cotton,  mahogany,  copper,  etc., 
which  the  region  should  produce,  and  a  city  would  spring  up  in  the 
gulf  of  Samana  equal  to  any  in  the  West  Indies. 

I  lingered  as  long  as  possible  on  the  banks  of  this  beautiful 
river,  swinging  my  hammock  at  night  under  the  wide-spreading 
mango-trees,  and  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  murmuring  waters.  The 
banks  of  the  Yuna  abound  in  flowering  plants  that  would  set  a 
botanist  wild  with  delight,  while  flocks  of  paroquets,  with  their 
cheery  notes,  help  to  dispel  the  gloom  of  solitude. 

Sickness  may  be  said  to  be  unknown  in  this  part  of  the  country, 
as  the  prevailing  breeze  from  the  mountains  seems  to  bring  health 
upon  its  wings.     What  a  climate  for  our  invalids  to  visit  ! 

Herds  of  cattle  were  frequently  seen  standing  in  the  river  shal- 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  625 

lows.  White  Guinea  fowl  would  fly  over  our  heads  by  the  hundred, 
with  a  whirr  like  the  sound  of  a  hurricane,  and,  as  they  alighted  at 
a  distance,  much  resembled  snow-flakes  driven  by  the  wind.  I  have 
seen  at  least  a  thousand  of  these  birds  feeding  together  on  the  bor- 
der of  the  forest. 

One  night  I  slung  my  hammock  in  a  schoolhouse  at  Cotuy,  re- 
ceiving the  hospitality  of  the  master — who  had  no  scholars — and, 
though  the  accommodations  were  of  the  rudest  description,  the 
place  seemed  delightful  after  what  I  had  just  passed  through — a 
ride  of  sixty  miles  on  a  sorry  horse. 

Next  morning  I  was  aroused  by  a  tumult  outside  my  lodgings, 
and,  springing  from  my  hammock,  I  was  confronted  by  a  throng  of 
citizens,  headed  by  the  cura,  who  charged  me  with  being  a  spy,  and 
demanded  to  see  my  passports.  I  soon  quieted  the  suspicions  of 
these  worthy  people  in  a  speech  of  the  purest  Castilian,  and  my  elo- 
quence pleased  them  so  much  that  they  presented  me  with  some 
yams  and  bananas,  and,  when  I  departed,  escorted  me  some  distance 
from  their  town.  In  fact,  the  people  everywhere,  when  informed 
of  my  official  character  and  the  purport  of  my  visit,  treated  me 
with  the  greatest  kindness  and  consideration. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  I  merely  followed  the  highways  in 
my  journeyings.  I  started  always  on  my  day's  march  at  4  a.  m., 
and  generally  averaged  about  two  and  a  half  miles  an  hour  up  to 
4  p.  m.  ;  but,  after  a  long  day's  ride  and  an  hour's  rest  and  refresh- 
ment, I  frequently  mounted  a  fresh  horse  and  scoured  the  country 
for  miles  around,  guided  by  the  natives,  who  were  anxious  to  show 
me  everything,  until  the  approach  of  night  reminded  me  that  I 
must  retrace  my  steps.  In  my  travels  there  were  few  of  the  towns 
and  villages  of  the  Dominican  Republic  that  I  did  not  visit,  and  I 
took  the  census  of  every  settlement  through  which  I  passed. 

From  Cotuy  my  course  was  through  the  beautiful  district  of 
La  Vega,  so  graphically  described  by  Irving  as  the  land  of  the 
Cacique  Guarionex,  who  lived  here  with  his  tribe  on  a  soil  unsur- 
passed in  fertility,  from  which  they  derived  substantial  treasures ; 
while  the  purblind  Spanish  adventurers,  heedless  of  all  wealth  except 
the  precious  metals,  wasted  their  lives  in  seeking  rich  placers  and 
golden  streams,  and  starved  in  the  midst  of  plenty. 

As  I  traveled  toward  the  gulf  of  Samana  I  sometimes  followed 
the  course  of  the  Yuna,  and  sometimes  crossed  ranges  of  hills  seven 
or  eight  hundred  feet  in  height,  sloping  into  beautiful  valleys 
watered  by  the  tributaries  of  the  Yuna.     That  river,  by  the  time 


THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

it  reaches  Samaria  Gulf,  becomes  quite  a  respectable  stream,  navi- 
gable for  small  vessels  for  some  distance  into  the  interior. 

Before  I  had  arrived  within  sight  of  the  gulf  of  Samana,  two  of 
my  horses  had  died  of  exhaustion,  and  the  rest  were  completely 
broken  down.  As  for  myself,  what  with  swimming  rapid  streams, 
plunging  through  forests,  falling  among  rocks,  etc.,  my  clothes 
were  all  in  rags,  and  my  limbs  so  swollen  as  to  give  me  constant 
pain,  and  I  had  to  wrap  my  feet  in  rawhide  like  the  natives. 

It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  retrace  our  steps,  and  after  a 
toilsome  journey  I  reached  the  little  town  of  Maccoris,  whence  after 
recruiting  and  obtaining  fresh  horses  I  pushed  on  to  Santiago,  a 
pretty  town  of  five  thousand  inhabitants,  eighty  miles  from  Porto 
Plata.  From  Santiago  I  traveled  more  than  two  hundred  miles  to 
different  points  in  the  La  Vega  district.  Having  finished  this  re- 
connaissance, I  judged  that  I  had  accomplished  the  object  of  my 
mission,  and  had  examined  the  country. 

The  third  day  after  my  arrival  at  Santiago  I  came  across  a  num- 
ber of  "  Galignani's  Messenger,"  and  read  there  an  account  of  the 
opening  of  hostilities  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  and 
the  death  of  my  brother,  killed  while  searching  for  the  body  of 
Colonel  Cross. 

I  purchased  the  best  horse  to  be  procured,  and  next  day  set  out 
for  Porto  Plata,  eighty  miles  distant,  which  I  reached  in  eighteen 
hours,  stopping  but  twice  on  the  road  to  refresh  myself  and  horse. 

I  arrived  at  Porto  Plata  on  the  13th  of  June,  one  day  later  than 
the  time  appointed,  having  been  constantly  in  the  saddle  over  some 
of  the  roughest  roads  one  can  imagine,  and  having  averaged  nearly 
thirty  miles  a  day,  equal  to  eight  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  with 
at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  detours  additional. 

On  my  return  home  in  the  Porpoise  from  Porto  Plata,  I  made 
a  full  report  in  duplicate — one  for  the  State  and  the  other  for  the 
Navy  Department — but  both  of  these  disappeared  from  the  depart- 
ments prior  to  the  breaking  out  of  our  civil  war  in  1861. 

During  President  Pierce's  Administration,  an  officer  of  engi- 
neers was  sent  to  the  gulf  of  Samana  in  the  frigate  Raritan  to  ex- 
amine into  its  adaptability  for  a  naval  depot  and  its  capacity  for 
defense. 

Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  the  then  Secretary  of  War,  being  a  man  of 
large  views,  no  doubt  saw  the  necessity  to  this  country  in  the  future 
of  such  a  naval  depot  as  the  gulf  of  Samana,  or  he  may  have  had 
other  ideas  which  it  is  unnecessary  now  to  surmise. 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  627 

Soon  after  the  Southern  Confederacy  assumed  the  form  of  a 
government,  and  began  to  fit  out  vessels  to  prey  upon  our  com- 
merce, we  had  to  prepare  a  set  of  fast  cruisers  to  meet  these  priva- 
teers, for  they  could  scarcely  be  termed  ships  of  war  ;  and,  as  the 
Sumter  was  seizing  our  vessels  in  the  West  Indies,  cruisers  were 
sent  in  that  direction. 

While  Confederate  vessels  were  allowed  to  obtain  coal  and  pro- 
visions in  all  the- West  India  ports  and  to  sail  when  it  suited  their 
convenience,  our  ships  met  with  vexatious  delays,  and,  if  a  Confed- 
erate vessel  was  in  port,  we  were  not  allowed  to  sail  until  the  enemy 
had  been  gone  twenty-four  hours,  during  which  time  the  latter 
might  destroy  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  property. 

I  know  how  this  system  worked,  for  I  chased  the  Sumter  in  a 
slow,  old  ship,  for  ten  thousand  miles,  never  being  off  her  track, 
and  always  arriving  in  port  a  few  hours  after  her  departure. 

Had  I  not  been  detained  purposely  at  every  port  but  one  where 
I  coaled,  I  should  have  captured  the  Sumter  at  Para,  where  I  ar- 
rived twenty  hours  after  she  sailed. 

There  was  a  great  sympathy  everywhere  for  this  Sumter,  due 
probably  to  the  prodigality  with  which  the  officers  threw  money 
about,  but  probably  also  it  was  due  to  the  feeling  which  always  ex- 
ists in  favor  of  the  weaker  party.  This  feeling  was  worth  more  to 
the  Confederates  than  tons  of  coal  and  miles  of  speed. 

St.  Thomas  was  the  only  port  in  the  West  Indies  where  we  were 
received  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Confederates  ;  in  fact,  the  sym- 
pathy seemed  there  to  be  in  our  favor,  if  I  could  judge  by  the 
alacrity  with  which  the  necessary  supplies  were  furnished  to  us, 
enabling  us  to  pursue  the  Sumter  without  loss  of  time. 

The  difficulties  our  ships  encountered  and  the  losses  sustained  by 
our  citizens  in  the  West  Indies  engaged  the  serious  attention  of  the 
distinguished  statesman  who  managed  our  foreign  affairs  during 
the  civil  war  with  such  consummate  ability.  After  the  fall  of  the 
Confederacy,  it  occurred  to  Mr.  Seward  that  the  island  of  St. 
Thomas  would  be  of  great  value  to  the  United  States  in  time  of 
war  as  a  naval  depot  where  our  vessels  could  procure  coal  and  pro- 
visions without  returning  home. 

I  had  the  honor  to  enjoy  the  confidence  of  Mr.  Seward,  and  he 
consulted  with  me  on  this  subject.  I  prepared  the  necessary  charts 
and  obtained  all  the  requisite  information  to  enable  our  Government 
to  treat  for  the  purchase  of  the  island.  When  the  matter  was  ar- 
ranged, Mr.  Seward  requested  me  to  go  out  in  a  ship  of  war  and  take 


628  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

possession  of  the  new  territory  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  but 
that  duty  I  persuaded  him  to  assign  to  Rear- Admiral  Palmer. 

Congress  readily  voted  the  money  for  the  purchase,  and,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  terrible  earthquake  which  occurred  just  at  that 
moment  and  put  an  end  to  the  negotiations,  St.  Thomas  and  all  the 
contiguous  islands  would  have  been  ours. 

Admiral  Palmer's  flagship  was  driven  on  shore  by  the  mighty 
wave  which  rolled  into  the  harbor  of  St.  Thomas  ;  houses  were 
thrown  down,  hillsides  rent,  and  the  wharves  submerged  ;  even  the 
character  of  the  bottom  of  the  harbor  was  changed  ;  and  it  was  con- 
cluded that  St.  Thomas  would  be  of  no  use  to  us.  Mr.  Seward, 
therefore,  receded  from  the  inchoate  bargain  just  as  a  man  declines 
to  pay  for  a  horse  which  tumbles  in  a  fit  while  he  is  negotiating  its 
purchase.  The  Danish  Government  found  no  fault  with  our  action^ 
although  naturally  disappointed  at  not  receiving  the  money,  which 
was  of  more  value  to  them  than  their  far-distant  colony. 

Shortly  afterward  the  Swedish  Government  offered  to  the  United 
States  the  island  of  St.  Bartholomew,  about  a  hundred  miles  to  the 
windward  of  St.  Thomas,  almost  as  a  free  gift,  with  the  proviso 
that  a  few  old  pensioners  should  be  supported  during  their  lives. 
After  a  full  inquiry  Mr.  Seward  declined  the  offer.  St.  Bartholo- 
mew has  no  ports,  and  vessels  lying  in  the  open  roadstead  could  be 
easily  destroyed  by  ships  lying  off  the  island. 

Mr.  Seward  was,  however,  bent  upon  obtaining  in  the  West 
Indies  a  port  of  refuge  for  our  ships  of  war  and  merchant  vessels) 
and  of  all  harbors  in  that  quarter  the  gulf  of  Samana  appeared  to 
be  in  every  respect  the  most  eligible  place  for  the  purpose.  It  com- 
mands the  Mona  Passage,  through  which  all  American  and  European 
commerce  passes  on  its  way  to  the  Caribbean  Sea,  Honduras,  coast 
of  Mexico,  etc.  The  gulf  and  its  harbors  are  perfectly  healthy, 
with  north  winds  and  sea-breezes  the  year  round.  Then  if  we  could 
obtain  the  isthmus  of  Samana  .we  should  have  entire  control  of  a 
considerable  extent  of  country  and  all  the  harbors  on  the  north 
side  of  the  gulf.  Besides  this,  the  Dominicans  wanted  us  to  have 
the  place,  and  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  island. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Seward  saw  his  way  clear,  he  determined  to  send 
his  son,  the  Hon.  Frederick  W.  Seward,  Assistant  Secretary  of  State, 
and  myself  as  Commissioners  to  purchase  or  lease  the  gulf  of  Sa- 
mana, together  with  the  adjacent  territory. 

In  December,  1866,  we  embarked  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  on  board 
the  U.  S.  S.  Gettysburg,  with  full  instructions  and  a  large  amount  of 


SECRET  MISSIONS  TO  SAN  DOMINGO.  629 

hard  cash.  A  few  minutes  after  leaving  the  dock  the  pilot  ran  the 
ship  hard  and  fast  on  an  oyster-bank  ;  the  wind  came  out  strongly 
from  the  north,  and  in  a  few  hours  a  man  could  walk  all  around 
her.  I  therefore  telegraphed  for  the  IT.  S.  steamer  Don,  into 
which  my  passengers  were  transferred,  and  we  got  along  well 
enough  until  off  Cape  Hatteras  ;  there  we  encountered  a  terrific  gale, 
which  tore  the  ship  almost  to  piece^  and  blew  one  of  her  masts  over 
the  side,  where  the  iron  rigging  fouling  the  propeller  rendered  the 
Don  almost  a  wreck.  We  managed  to  get  back  to  Hampton 
Roads,  and,  meeting  the  Gettysburg  coming  down  the  bay,  Mr. 
Seward  and  myself  again  embarked  in  her ;  and,  after  a  series  of 
mishaps  sufficient  to  dampen  the  ardor  of  the  most  enthusiastic  dip- 
lomat, we  cast  anchor  off  the  city  of  San  Domingo. 

We  at  once  opened  negotiations  with  the  Dominican  authori- 
ties, giving  them  to  understand  that  we  had  gold  enough  on  board 
to  redeem  all  their  elastic  currency.  We  told  them  that  we  wanted 
the  gulf  of  Samana,  including  every  harbor  and  all  the  isthmus, 
with  such  rights  in  the  adjacent  country  as  would  insure  the  United 
States  against  any  interference  from  the  Dominican  Government. 
In  fact,  we  wanted  all  the  Dominicans  were  willing  to  let  us  have. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  our  mission  was  unsuccessful,  though  we 
were  treated  with  the  greatest  courtesy  ;  and,  when  we  shook  the 
dust  of  the  island  off  our  feet  and  departed,  tears  stood  in  the  eyes 
of  the  administration  at  the  thought  of  so  much  specie  being  car- 
ried away  which  ought  to  have  belonged  to  them. 

The  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  success  seemed  to  be  the  fact 
that  the  Government  of  San  Domingo  had  just  emerged  from  a 
revolution,  and  a  powerful  party  in  the  country  was  bitterly  hostile 
to  it.  There  were  still  many  predatory  bands  that  had  not  laid 
down  their  arms  ;  therefore  the  Dominican  Government,  although 
greatly  in  need  of  money,  and  desirous  to  have  us  for  neighbors, 
did  not  dare  to  accept  our  proposition.  We  had  no  authority  to 
offer  the  Government  protection  from  foreign  or  domestic  violence, 
and  we  could  advance  no  money  until  the  territory  of  Samana  was 
made  over  absolutely  to  the  United  States.  Mr.  Seward,  senior, 
was  greatly  disappointed,  but  never  gave  up  the  hope  of  finally 
accomplishing  his  purpose. 

In  his  project  of  acquiring  territory  in  the  West  Indies  he  was 

fully  sustained  by  many  of  his  old  colleagues  in  the  Senate,  to 

whom,  no  doubt,  he  had  confided  his  views.     Even  Mr.  Sumner, 

who  so  opposed  the  San  Domingo  idea  of  President  Grant,  ap- 

vol.  cxxviii. — no.  271.  41 


630  TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

proved  Mr.  Seward's  plan.  Other  statesmen,  too,  who  had  favored 
the  purchase  of  St.  Thomas,  Samana,  and  Alaska,  under  the  lead  of 
Mr.  Seward,  afterward  took  opposite  ground,  for  reasons  which 
were  doubtless  satisfactory  to  themselves. 

President  Grant  was  not  slow  in  following  Mr.  Seward's  initia- 
tive, and  in  endeavoring  to  obtain  possession  of  the  gulf  of  Samana. 
He  fully  understood  its  value  as  a  naval  and  military  station,  and 
earnestly  desired  its  acquisition  ;  besides,  the  President  of  the  Do- 
minican Republic  had  laid  before  our  Administration  the  advantages 
such  a  cession  of  territory  would  be  not  only  to  the  United  States 
but  to  his  own  country,  which  sadly  needed  money,  and  had  no  par- 
ticular use  for  Samana. 

My  readers  will  doubtless  recollect  the  bitter  opposition  Presi- 
dent Grant  encountered  in  his  patriotic  desire  to  secure  for  this 
country  a  cession  of  territory  that  would  be  invaluable  to  us  in  case 
of  war  with  a  naval  power,  an  opposition  that  could  not  be  justified 
on  reasonable  grounds,  but  was  to  the  last  degree  unwise,  as,  from 
my  knowledge  of  the  island  and  sentiments  of  the  inhabitants,  I  am 
certain  that  it  must  necessarily  become  in  the  future  a  territory  of 
the  United  States,  unless,  in  contempt  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  we 
suffer  it  to  fall  into  the  clutches  of  some  European  power. 

I  have  merely  glanced  at  what  ought  to  be  an  interesting  sub- 
ject to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  A  detailed  account  of  the 
climate,  resources,  exports,  natural  history,  etc.,  of  San  Domingo, 
would  set  young  America  to  thinking  on  the  matter  of  acquiring  a 
foothold  in  the  gulf  of  Samana. 

David  D.  Poetee. 


VI. 

SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  EAST. 


In  order  to  have  a  solid  foundation  for  a  comparative  study  of 
the  religions  of  the  East,  we  must  have,  before  all  things,  complete 
and  thoroughly  faithful  translations  of  their  sacred  books.  Extracts 
will  no  longer  suffice.  We  do  not  know  Germany,  if  we  know  the 
Rhine;  nor  Rome,  when  we  have  admired  St.  Peter's.  No  one  who 
collects  and  publishes  such  extracts  can  resist,  no  one  at  all  events, 
so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  resisted  the  temptation  of  giving  what  is 
beautiful,  or  it  may  be  what  is  strange  and  startling,  and  leaving 
out  what  is  commonplace,  tedious,  or  it  may  be  repulsive,  or  lastly, 
what  is  difficult  to  construe  and  to  understand.  AVe  must  face  the 
problem  in  its  completeness,  and  I  confess  it  has  been  for  many 
years  a  problem  to  me,  ay,  and  to  a  great  extent  is  so  still,  how 
the  sacred  books  of  the  East  should,  by  the  side  of  so  much  that  is 
fresh,  natural,  simple,  beautiful,  and  true,  contain  so  much  that  is 
not  only  unmeaning,  artificial,  and  silly,  but  hideous  and  repellent. 
This  is  a  fact,  and  must  be  accounted  for  in  some  way  or  other. 

To  some  minds  this  problem  may  seem  to  be  no  problem  at  all. 
To  those,  and  I  do  not  speak  of  Christians  only,  who  look  upon  the 
sacred  books  of  all  religions  except  their  own  as  necessarily  the  out- 
come of  human  or  superhuman  ignorance  and  depravity,  the  mixed 
nature  of  their  contents  may  seem  to  be  exactly  what  it  ought  to  be, 
what  they  expected  it  would  be.  But  there  are  other  and  more  rev- 
erent minds  who  can  feel  a  divine  afflatus  in  the  sacred  books,  not 
only  of  their  own,  but  of  other  religions  also,  and  to  them  the  mixed 
character  of  some  of  the  ancient  sacred  canons  must  always  be  ex- 
tremely perplexing. 

I  can  account  for  it  to  a  certain  extent,  though  not  entirely  to 
my  own  satisfaction.  Most  of  the  ancient  sacred  books  have  been 
handed  down  by  oral  tradition  for  many  generations  before  they 
were  consigned  to  writing.     In  an  age  when  there  was  nothing  cor- 


632  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

responding  to  what  we  call  literature,  every  saying,  every  proverb, 
every  story  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  received  very  soon  a 
kind  of  hallowed  character.  They  became  sacred  heirlooms;  sacred 
because  they  came  from  an  unknown  source,  from  a  distant  age. 
There  was  a  stage  in  the  development  of  human  society  when  the 
distance  that  separated  the  living  generation  from  their  grandfa- 
thers or  great-grandfathers  was,  as  yet,  the  nearest  approach  to  a  con- 
ception of  eternity,  and  when  the  name  of  grandfather  and  great- 
grandfather seemed  the  nearest  expression  of  God.*  Hence,  what 
had  been  said  by  these  half -human,  half- divine  ancestors,  if  it  was 
preserved  at  all,  was  soon  looked  upon  as  a  more  than  human  utter- 
ance. It  was  received  with  reverence,  it  was  never  questioned  and 
criticised. 

Some  of  these  ancient  sayings  were  preserved  because  they  were 
so  true  and  so  striking  that  they  could  not  be  forgotten.  They 
contained  eternal  truths,  expressed  for  the  first  time  in  human  lan- 
guage. Of  such  oracles  of  truth  it  was  said  in  India  that  they  had 
been  heard,  sruta,  and  from  it  arose  the  word  sruti,  the  recognized 
term  for  divine  revelation  in  Sanskrit. 

But  besides  such  utterandlfe  which  had  a  vitality  of  their  own, 
strong  enough  to  defy  the  power  of  time,  there  were  others  which 
might  have  struck  the  minds  of  the  listeners  with  great  force  under 
the  peculiar  circumstances  that  evoked  them,  but  which,  when  these 
circumstances  were  forgotten,  became  trivial  and  almost  unintelli- 
gible. A  few  verses  sung  by  warriors  on  the  eve  of  a  great  battle 
would,  if  that  battle  proved  victorious,  assume  a  charm  quite  inde- 
pendent of  their  poetic  merit.  They  would  be  repeated  in  mem- 
ory of  the  heroes  who  conquered,  and  of  the  gods  who  granted 
victory.  But  when  the  heroes,  and  the  gods,  and  the  victory  which 
they  gained  were  forgotten,  the  song  of  victory  and  thanksgiving 
would  often  survive  as  a  relic  of  the  past,  though  almost  unintelli- 
gible to  later  generations. 

Even  a  single  ceremonial  act,  performed  at  the  time  of  a  famine 
or  an  inundation,  and  apparently  attended  with  a  sudden  and  almost 
miraculous  success,  might  often  be  preserved  in  the  liturgical  code 
of  a  family  or  a  tribe  with  a  superstitious  awe  entirely  beyond  our 
understanding.  It  might  be  repeated  for  some  time  on  similar 
emergencies,  till  when  it  had  failed  again  and  again  it  survived  only 
as  a  superstitious  custom  in  the  memory  of  priests  and  poets. 

*  Bishop  Callaway,  "  Unkulunkulu,  or  the  Tradition  of  Creation,  as  existing  among 
the  Amazulu  and  other  Tribes  of  South  Africa,"  p.  7. 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  EAST.  633 

Further,  it  should  be  remembered  that,  in  ancient  as  in  mod- 
ern times,  the  utterances  of  men  who  had  once  gained  a  certain  pres- 
tige would  often  receive  attention  far  beyond  their  merits,  so  that 
in  many  a  family  or  tribe  the  sayings  and  teachings  of  one  man, 
who  had  once  in  his  youth  or  manhood  uttered  words  of  inspired 
wisdom,  would  all  be  handed  down  together,  without  any  attempt 
to  separate  the  grain  from  the  chaff.         • 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  though  oral  tradition,  when  once 
brought  under  proper  discipline,  is  a  most  faithful  guardian,  it  is 
not  without  its  dangers  in  its  incipient  stages.  Many  a  word  may 
have  been  misunderstood,  many  a  sentence  confused,  as  it  was  told 
by  father  to  son,  before  it  became  fixed  in  the  tradition  of  a  village 
community,  and  then  resisted  by  its  very  sacredness  all  attempts  at 
emendation. 

Lastly,  we  must  remember  that  those  who  handed  down  the  an- 
cestral treasures  of  ancient  wisdom  would  often  feel  inclined  to 
add  what  seemed  useful  to  themselves,  and  what  they  knew  could 
be  preserved  in  one  way  only,  namely,  if  it  was  allowed  to  form 
part  of  the  tradition  that  had  to  be  handed  down,  as*  a  sacred  trust, 
from  generation  to  generation.  The»priestly  influence  was  at  work, 
even  before  there  were  priests  by  profession,  and,  when  the  priest- 
hood had  once  become  professional,  its  influence  may  account  for 
much  that  would  otherwise  seem  inexplicable  in  the  sacred  codes 
of  the  ancient  world. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  considerations  which  may  help  to  explain 
how,  mixed  up  with  real  treasures  of  thought,  we  meet  in  the  sacred 
books  with  so  many  passages  and  whole  chapters  which  either  never 
had  any  life  or  meaning  at  all,  or,  if  they  had,  have,  in  the  form  in 
which  they  have  come  down  to  us,  completely  lost  it.  We  must 
try  to  imagine  what  the  Old  Testament  would  have  been,  if  it  had 
not  been  kept  distinct  from  the  Talmud  ;  or  the  New  Testament,  if 
it  had  been  mixed  up,  not  only  with  the  spurious  gospels,  but  with 
the  records  of  the  wranglings  of  the  early  councils,  if  we  wish  to 
understand,  to  some  extent  at  least,  the  wild  confusion  of  sublime 
truth  with  vulgar  stupidity  that  meets  us  in  the  pages  of  the  Veda, 
the  Avesta,  and  the  Tripitfaka.  The  idea  of  keeping  the  original 
and  genuine  tradition  separate  from  apocryphal  accretions  was  an 
idea  of  later  growth,  that  could  spring  up  only  after  the  earlier 
tendency  of  preserving  whatever  could  be  preserved  of  sacred  or 
half -sacred  lore  had  done  its  work,  and  wrought  its  own  destruc- 
tion. 


634  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

In  using,  what  may  seem  to  some  of  my  fellow  workers,  this 
very  strong  and  almost  irreverent  language  with  regard  to  the  an- 
cient sacred  books  of  the  East,  I  have  not  neglected  to  make  full 
allowance  for  that  very  important  intellectual  parallax  which,  no 
doubt,  renders  it  very  difficult  for  a  Western  observer  to  see  things 
and  thoughts  under  exactly  the  same  angle  and  in  the  same  light  as 
they  would  appear  to  an  Eastern  eye.  There  are  Western  expres- 
sions which  offend  Eastern  taste  as  much  as  Eastern  expressions  are 
apt  to  offend  Western  taste.  A  symphony  of  Beethoven's  would 
be  mere  noise  to  an  Indian  ear,  an  Indian  Sangita  seems  to  us  with- 
out melody,  harmony,  or  rhythm.  All  this  I  fully  admit,  yet,  after 
making  every  allowance  for  national  taste  and  traditions,  I  still  con- 
fidently appeal  to  the  best  Oriental  scholars,  who  have  not  entirely 
forgotten  that  there  is  a  world  outside  the  four  walls  of  their  study, 
whether  they  think  that  my  condemnation  is  too  severe,  or  that 
Eastern  nations  themselves  would  tolerate,  in  any  of  their  classical 
literary  compositions,  such  violations  of  the  simplest  rules  of  taste 
as  they  have  accustomed  themselves  to  tolerate,  if  not  to  admire,  in 
their  sacred  books. 

But  then  it  might,  no  douj^t,  be  objected  that  books  of  such  a 
character  hardly  deserve  the  honor  of  being  translated  into  English, 
that  the  sooner  they  are  forgotten  the  better.  Such  opinions  have 
of  late  been  freely  expressed  by  some  eminent  writers,  and  sup- 
ported by  arguments  worthy  of  the  Caliph  Omar  himself.  In  these 
days  of  anthropological  research,  when  no  custom  is  too  disgusting 
to  be  recorded,  no  rules  of  intermarriage  too  complicated  to  be  dis- 
entangled, it  may  seem  strange  that  the  few  genuine  relics  of  an- 
cient religion  which,  as  by  a  miracle,  have  been  preserved  to  us, 
should  thus  have  been  judged  from  a  purely  aesthetic,  and  not  from 
an  historical  point  of  view.  There  was  some  excuse  for  this  in  the 
days  of  Sir  W.  Jones  and  Colebrooke.  The  latter,  as  is  well  known, 
considered  "the  Vedas  as  too  voluminous  for  a  complete  translation 
of  the  whole,"  adding  that  "  what  they  contain  would  hardly  reward 
the  labor  of  the  reader,  much  less  that  of  the  translator."  *  The 
former  went  still  further  in  the  condemnation  which  he  pronounced 
on  Anquetil  Duperron's  translation  of  the  Zend-avesta.  Sir  W. 
Jones,  we  must  remember,  was  not  only  a  scholar,  but  also  a  man 
of  taste,  and  the  man  of  taste  sometimes  gained  a  victory  over  the 
scholar.     His  controversy  with  Anquetil  Duperron,  the  discoverer 

*  Colebrooke's  "Miscellaneous  Essays,"  1873,  vol.  ii.,  p.  102. 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  TEE  EAST.  635 

of  the  Zend-avesta,  is  well  known.  It  was  carried  on  by  Sir  W. 
Jones  apparently  with  great  success,  and  yet  in  the  end  the  victor 
has  proved  to  be  the  vanquished.  It  was  easy,  no  doubt,  to  pick 
out  from  Anquetil  Duperron's  translation  of  the  sacred  writings  of 
Zoroaster  hundreds  of  passages  which  were,  or  seemed  to  be,  utter- 
ly unmeaning  or  absurd.  This  arose  partly,  but  partly  only,  from 
the  imperfections  of  the  translation.  Mi*ch,  however,  of  what  Sir 
\Y.  Jones  represented  as  ridiculous,  and  therefore  unworthy  of  Zo- 
roaster, and  therefore  unworthy  of  being  translated,  forms  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  sacred  code  of  the  Zoroast-rians.  Sir  W.  Jones 
smiles  at  those  who  "think  obscurity  sublime  and  venerable,  like 
that  of  ancient  cloisters  and  temples,  shedding,"  as  Milton  expresses 
it,  "a  dim  religious  light." * 

The  sacred  code  of  Zoroaster  or  of  any  other  of  the  founders  of 
religions  may  appear  to  us  to  be  full  of  absurdities,  or  may  in  fact 
really  be  so,  and  it  may  yet  be  the  duty  of  the  scholar  to  publish,  to 
translate,  and  carefully  to  examine  those  codes  as  memorials  of  the 
past,  as  the  only  trustworthy  documents  in  which  to  study  the 
growth  and  decay  of  religion.  It  does  not  answer  to  say  that  if 
Zoroaster  was  what  we  believe  him  to  have  been,  a  wise  man,  in 
our  sense  of  the  word,  he  could  not  Have  written  the  rubbish  which 
we  find  in  the  Avesta.  If  we  are  once  satisfied  that  the  text  of  the 
Avesta,  or  the  Veda,  or  the  Tripifaka  is  old  and  genuine,  and  that 
this  text  formed  the  foundation  on  which,  during  many  centuries, 
the  religious  belief  of  millions  of  human  beings  was  based,  it  becomes 
our  duty,  both  as  historians  and  philosophers,  to  study  these  books,  to 
try  to  understand  how  they  could  have  arisen,  and  how  they  could 
have  exercised  for  ages  an  influence  over  human  beings  who  in  all 
other  respects  were  not  inferior  to  ourselves,  nay,  whom  we  are 
accustomed  to  look  up  to  on  many  points  as  patterns  of  wisdom,  of 
virtue,  and  of  taste. 

Accurate,  complete,  and  unembellished  versions  alone  will  enable 
historians  and  philosophers  to  form  a  true  and  just  estimate  of  the 
real  development  of  early  religious  thought,  so  far  as  we  can  still 
gain  a  sight  of  it  in  the  literary  records  to  which  the  highest  humaa 
or  even  divine  authority  has  been  ascribed  by  the  followers  of  the 
great  religions  of  antiquity.  It  often  requires  an  effort  to  spoil  a 
beautiful  sentence  by  a  few  words  which  might  so  easily  be  sup- 
pressed, but  which  are  there  in  the  original,  and  must  be  taken  into 
account  quite  as  much  as  the  pointed  ears  in  the  beautiful  Faun  of 
*  Sir  W.  Jones's  "Works,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  113. 


636  TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

the  Capitol.  We  want  to  know  the  ancient  religions  such  as  they 
really  were,  not  such  as  we  wish  they  should  have  been.  We  want 
to  know,  not  their  wisdom  only,  but  their  folly  also  ;  and,  while  we 
must  learn  to  look  up  to  their  highest  points  where  they  seem  to 
rise  nearer  to  heaven  than  anything  we  were  acquainted  with 
before,  we  must  not  shrink  from  looking  down  into  their  stony 
tracts,  their  dark  abysses,  their  muddy  moraines,  in  order  to  com- 
prehend both  the  height  and  the  depth  of  the  human  mind  in  its 
searchings  after  the  Infinite. 

There  are  philosophers  who  have  accustomed  themselves  to  look 
upon  religions  as  things  that  can  be  studied  as  they  study  the 
manners  and  customs  of  savage  tribes,  by  glancing  at  the  entertain- 
ing accounts  of  travelers  or  missionaries,  and  then  classing  each 
religion  under  such  wide  categories  as  fetichism,  polytheism,  mono- 
theism, and  the  rest.  That  is  not  the  case.  Translations,  it  may  be 
said,  can  do  much,  but  they  can  never  take  the  place  of  the  originals, 
and  if  the  originals  require  not  only  to  be  read,  but  to  be  read  again 
and  again,  translations  of  sacred  books  require  to  be  studied  with 
much  greater  care,  before  we  can  hope  to  gain  a  real  understanding 
of  the  intentions  of  their  authors  or  venture  on  general  assertions. 

Such  general  assertions,  if  once  made,  are  difficult  to  extirpate. 
It  has  been  stated,  for  instance,  that  "  the  religious  notion  of  sin  is 
wanting  altogether  in  the  hymns  of  the  Rig-veda,"  and  some  impor- 
tant conclusions  have  been  based  on  this  supposed  fact.  Yet  the 
gradual  growth  of  the  concept  of  guilt  is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing lessons  which  certain  passages  of  these  ancient  hymns  can  teach 
us.*  It  has  been  asserted  that  in  the  Rig-veda  Agni,  fire,  was 
adored  essentially  as  earthly  sacrificial  fire,  and  not  as  an  elemental 
force.  How  greatly  such  an  assertion  has  to  be  qualified,  may  be 
seen  from  a  more  careful  examination  of  the  translations  of  the 
Vedic  hymns  now  accessible.!  In  many  parts  of  the  A  vest  a  the 
fire  is  no  doubt  spoken  of  with  great  reverence,  but  those  who  speak 
of  the  Zoroastrians  as  fire-worshipers  should  know  that  the  true 
followers  of  Zoroaster  abhor  that  very  name.  Again,  there  are 
certainly  many  passages  in  the  Vedic  writings  which  prohibit  the 
promiscuous  communication  of  the  Veda  ;  but  those  who  maintain 
that  the  Brahmans,  like  Roman  Catholic  priests,  keep  their  sacred 

*  M.  M.,  "  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,"  second  edition,  1859,  p.  540,  seq. 

f  Ludwig,  "Rig-veda,  iibersetzt,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  331,  seq.  Mulr,  "Sanskrit  Texts,'' 
vol.  v.,  p.  199,  seq.  On  the  later  growth  of  Agni,  see  a  very  useful  essay  by  Holtz- 
mann,  "  Agni,  nach  den  Vorstellungen  des  Mahabharata,"  1878. 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  EAST.  637 

books  from  the  people,  must  have  forgotten  the  many  passages  in 
the  Brahmarcas,  the  Sutras,  and  even  in  the  Laws  of  Manu,  where 
the  duty  of  learning  the  Veda  by  heart  is  inculcated  for  every 
Brahma;ia,  Kshatriya,  Vaisya,  that  is,  for  every  man  except  a 
£udra. 

These  are  a  few  specimens  only  to  show  how  dangerous  it  is  to 
generalize  even  where  there  exist  complete  translations  of  certain 
sacred  books.  It  is  far  easier  to  misapprehend,  or  even  totally  to 
misunderstand  a  translation  than  the  original,  and  it  should  not  be 
supposed,  because  a  sentence  or  a  whole  chapter  seems  at  first  sight 
unintelligible  in  a  translation,  that  therefore  it  is  indeed  devoid  of 
all  meaning. 

"What  can  be  more  perplexing  than  the  beginning  of  the  Kfikn- 
dogya-upanishad ?  "Let  a  man  meditate,"  we  read,  or,  as  others 
translate  it,  "  Let  a  man  worship  the  syllable  Om."  It  may  seem 
impossible  at  first  sight  to  elicit  any  definite  meaning  from  these 
words  and  from  much  that  follows  after.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake, 
nevertheless,  to  conclude  that  we  have  here  only  vox  et  prceterea 
nihil.  Meditation  on  the  syllable  Om  consisted  in  a  long-continued 
repetition  of  that  syllable  with  a  view  of  drawing  the  thoughts  away 
from  all  other  subjects,  and  thus  concentrating  them  on  some  higher 
object  of  thought  of  which  that  syllable  was  made  to  be  the  sym- 
bol. This  concentration  of  thought,  ekagrata  or  one-pointedness, 
as  the  Hindoos  called  it,  is  something  to  us  almost  unknown.  Our 
minds  are  like  kaleidoscopes  of  thoughts  in  constant  motion,  and  to 
shut  our  mental  eyes  to  everything  else,  while  dwelling  on  one 
thought  only,  has  become  to  most  of  us  almost  as  impossible  as  to 
apprehend  one  musical  note  without  harmonics.  With  the  life  we 
are  leading  now,  with  telegrams,  letters,  newspapers,  reviews,  pam- 
phlets, and  books  ever  breaking  in  upon  us,  it  has  become  impossi- 
ble, or  almost  impossible,  ever  to  arrive  at  that  intensity  of  thought 
which  the  Hindoos  meant  by  ekagrata,  and  the  attainment  of  which 
was  to  them  the  sine  qua  non  of  all  philosophical  and  religious 
speculation.  The  loss  may  not  be  altogether  on  our  side,  yet  a  loss 
it  is,  and  if  we  see  the  Hindoos  even  in  their  comparatively  monoto- 
nous life,  adopting  all  kinds  of  contrivances  in  order  to  assist,  them 
in  drawing  away  their  thoughts  from  all  disturbing  impressions 
and  to  fix  them  on  one  subject  only,  we  must  not  be  satisfied  with 
smiling  at  their  simplicity,  but  try  to  appreciate  the  object  they 
had  in  view. 

When  by  means  of  repeating  the  syllable  Om,  which  originally 


638  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

seems  to  have  meant  "  that  "  or  "  yes,"  they  had  arrived  at  a  certain 
degree  of  mental  tranquillity,  the  question  arose  what  was  meant  by 
this  Om,  and  to  this  question  the  most  various  answers  were  given, 
according  as  the  mind  was  to  be  led  up  to  higher  and  higher  objects. 
Thus  in  one  passage  we  are  told  at  first  that  Om  is  the  beginning 
of  the  Veda,  or,  as  we  have  to  deal  with  an  Upanishad  of  the  Sama- 
veda,  the  beginning  of  the  Sama-veda,  so  that  he  who  meditates  on 
Om  may  be  supposed  to  be  meditating  on  the  whole  of  the  Sama- 
veda.  But  that  is  not  enough.  Om  is  said  to  be  the  essence  of  the 
Sama-veda,  which,  being  almost  entirely  taken  from  the  Rig-veda, 
may  itself  be  called  the  essence  of  the  Rig-veda.  And  more  than 
that.  The  Rig-veda  stands  for  all  speech,  the  Sama-veda  for  all 
breath  or  life,  so  that  Om  may  be  conceived  again  as  the  symbol  of 
all  speech  and  all  life.  Om  thus  becomes  the  name,  not  only  of  all 
our  physical  and  mental  powers,  but  especially  of  the  living  princi- 
ple, the  Prana  or  spirit.  This  is  explained  by  the  parable  in  the 
second  kha/ic?a,  while  in  the  third  kha«c?a  that  spirit  within  us  is 
identified  with  the  spirit  in  the  sun.  He  therefore  who  meditates 
on  Om,  meditates  on  the  spirit  in  man  as  identical  with  the  spirit  in 
nature,  or  in  the  sun,  and  thus  the  lesson  that  is  meant  to  be  taught 
in  the  beginning  of  the  JSTtandogya-upanishad  is  really  this,  that 
none  of  the  Yedas  with  their  sacrifices  and  ceremonies  CQuld  ever 
secure  the  salvation  of  the  worshiper — i.  e.,  that  sacred  works  per- 
formed according  to  the  rules  of  the  Vedas  are  of  no  avail  in  the 
end,  but  that  meditation  on  Om  alone,  or  that  knowledge  of  what 
is  meant  by  Om  alone,  can  procure  true  salvation  or  true  immor- 
tality. Thus  the  pupil  is  led  on  step  by  step  to  what  is  the  highest 
object  of  the  Upanishads — viz.,  the  recognition  of  the  self  in  man 
as  identical  with  the  Highest  Self  or  Brahman.  The  lessons  which 
are  to  lead  up  to  that  highest  conception  of  the  universe,  both  sub- 
jective and  objective,  are  no  doubt  mixed  up  with  much  that  is 
superstitious  and  absurd ;  still  the  main  object  is  never  lost  sight 
of.  Thus,  when  we  come  to  the  eighth  khancfa,  the  discussion, 
though  it  begins  with  Om  or  the  Udgitha,  ends  with  the  question 
of  the  origin  of  the  world,  and  though  the  final  answer — namely, 
that  Om  means  ether  (akasa),  and  that  ether  is  the  origin  of  all 
things — may  still  sound  to  us  more  physical  than  metaphysical,  still 
the  description  given  of  ether  or  akasa  shows  that  more  is  meant  by 
it  than  the  physical  ether,  and  that  ether  is  in  fact  one  of  the  earlier 
and  less  perfect  names  of  the  Infinite,  of  Brahman,  the  universal  Self. 
This,  at  least,  is  the  lesson  which  the  Brahmans  themselves  read  in 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  TEE  EAST.  639 

this  chapter  ;  *  and  if  we  look  at  the  ancient  language  of  the  Upani- 
shads  as  representing  mere  attempts  at  finding  expression  for  what 
their  language  could  hardly  express  as  yet,  we  shall  I  think  be  less 
inclined  to  disagree  with  the  interpretation  put  on  those  ancient 
oracles  by  the  later  Vedanta  philosophers,  f  or,  at  all  events,  hesi- 
tate before  we  reject  what  is  difficult  to  interpret,  as  altogether 
devoid  of  meaning. 

This  is  but  one  instance  to  show  that,  even  behind  the  fantastic 
and  whimsical  phraseology  of  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Hindoos 
and  other  Eastern  nations,  there  may  be  sometimes  aspirations  after 
truth  which  deserve  careful  consideration  from  the  student  of  the 
psychological  development  and  the  historical  growth  of  early  reli- 
gious thought,  and  that,  after  careful  sifting,  treasures  may  be  found 
in  what  at  first  we  may  feel  inclined  to  throw  away  as  utterly 
worthless. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  a  text,  three  thousand  years  old,  or, 
even  if  of  more  modern  date,  still  widely  distant  from  our  own 
sphere  of  thought,  can  be  translated  in  the  same  manner  as  a  book 
written  a  few  years  ago  in  French  or  German.  Those  who  know 
French  and  German  well  enough,  know  how  difficult,  nay,  how  im- 
possible it  sometimes  is,  to  render  justice  to  certain  touches  of  ge- 
nius which  the  true  artist  knows  how  to  give  to  a  sentence.  Many 
poets  have  translated  Heine  into  English  or  Tennyson  into  German, 
many  painters  have  copied  the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto  or  the  so-called 
portrait  of  Beatrice  Cenci.  But  the  greater  the  excellence  of  these 
translators,  the  more  frank  has  been  their  avowal  that  the  original 
is  beyond  their  reach.  And  what  is  a  translation  of  modern  German 
into  modern  English  compared  with  a  translation  of  ancient  Sanskrit 
or  Zend  or  Chinese  into  any  modern  language  ?  It  is  an  undertak- 
ing which,  from  its  very  nature,  admits  of  the  most  partial  success 
only;  and  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the  ancient  language,  so 
far  from  facilitating  the  task  of  the  translator,  renders  it  only  more 
hopeless.  Modern  words  are  round,  ancient  words  are  square,  and 
we  may  as  well  hope  to  solve  the  quadrature  of  the  circle  as  to  ex- 

*  The  Upanishad  itself  says :  "  The  Brahman  is  the  same  as  the  ether  which  is 
around  us  ;  and  the  ether  which  is  around  us  is  the  same  as  the  ether  which  is  within 
us.  And  the  ether  whick  is  within,  that  is  the  ether  within  the  heart.  That  ether  in 
the  heart  is  omnipresent  and  unchanging.  He  who  knows  this  obtains  omnipresent 
and  unchangeable  happiness." — {Kh.  Up.  iii.,  12,  7-9.) 

f  Cf.  Ved&nta-sutras  i.,  1,  22. 


640  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

press  adequately  the  ancient  thoughts  of  the  Veda  in  modern  Eng- 
lish. 

We  must  not  expect,  therefore,  that  a  translation  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  ancients  can  ever  be  more  than  an  approximation  of 
our  language  to  theirs,  of  our  thoughts  to  theirs.  The  translator, 
however,  if  he  has  once  gained  the  conviction  that  it  is  impossible 
to  translate  old  thought  into  modern  speech,  without  doing  some 
violence  either  to  the  one  or  to  the  other,  will  hardly  hesitate  in  his 
choice  between  two  evils.  He  will  prefer  to  do  some  violence  to 
language  rather  than  to  misrepresent  old  thoughts,  by  clothing  them 
in  words  which  do  not  fit  them.  If,  therefore,  the  reader  finds  some 
of  these  translations  rather  rugged,  if  he  meets  with  expressions 
which  sound  foreign,  with  combinations  of  nouns  and  adjectives 
such  as  he  has  never  seen  before,  with  sentences  that  seem  too  long 
or  too  abrupt,  let  him  feel  sure  that  the  translator  has  had  to  deal 
with  a  choice  of  evils,  and  that,  when  the  choice  lay  between  sacri- 
ficing idiom  or  truth,  he  has  chosen  the  smaller  evil  of  the  two. 

I  shall  give  one  instance  only.  One  of  the  most  important  words 
in  the  ancient  philosophy  of  the  Brahmans  is  Atman,  nom.  sing. 
Atma.  It  is  rendered  in  our  dictionaries  by  "  breath,  soul,  the  prin- 
ciple of  life  and  sensation,  the  individual  soul,  the  self,  the  abstract 
individual,  self,  one's  self,  the  reflexive  pronoun,  the  natural  tem- 
perament or  disposition,  essence,  nature,  character,  peculiarity,  the 
person  or  the  whole  body,  the  body,  the  understanding,  intellect, 
the  mind,  the  faculty  of  thought  and  reason,  the  thinking  faculty, 
the  highest  principle  of  life,  Brahma,  the  supreme  deity  or  soul  of 
the  universe,  care,  effort,  pains,  firmness,  the  sun,  fire,  wind,  air,  a 
son." 

This  will  give  classical  scholars  an  idea  of  the  chaotic  state  from 
which,  thanks  to  the  excellent  work  done  by  Boehtlingk,  Roth,  and 
others,  Sanskrit  lexicology  is  only  just  emerging.  Some  of  the 
meanings  here  mentioned  ought  certainly  not  to  be  ascribed  to  at- 
man. It  never  means,  for  instance,  the  understanding,  nor  could  it 
ever  by  itself  be  translated  by  sun,  fire,  wind,  air,  pains,  or  firmness. 
But,  after  deducting  such  surplusage,  there  still  remain  a  large 
variety  of  meanings,  which  may,  under  certain  circumstances,  be 
ascribed  to  atman. 

When  atman  occurs  in  philosophical  treatises,  such  as  the  Upani- 
shads  and  the  Vedanta  system  which  is  based  on  them,  it  has  gener- 
ally been  translated  by  soul,  mind,  or  spirit.  I  tried  myself  to  use 
one  or  other  of  these  words,  but  the  oftener  I  employed  them  the 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  TEE  EAST.  641 

more  I  felt  their  inadequacy,  and  was  driven  at  last  to  adopt  self 
and  Self  as  the  least  liable  to  misunderstanding. 

No  doubt  in  many  passages  it  sounds  strange  in  English  to  use 
self,  and  in  the  plural  selfs  instead  of  selves  ;  but  that  very  strange- 
ness is  useful,  for,  while  such  words  as  soul  and  mind  and  spirit 
pass  over  us  unrealized,  self  and  selfs  will  always  ruffle  the  surface 
of  the  mind  and  stir  up  some  reflection  in  the  reader.  In  English  to 
speak  even  of  the  I  and  the  Non-I  was  till  lately  considered  harsh  ; 
it  may  still  be  called  a  foreign  philosophical  idiom.  In  German  the 
Ich  and  Nicht-ich  have,  since  the  time  of  Fichte,  become  recognized 
and  almost  familiar,  not  only  as  philosophical  terms,  but  as  legiti- 
mate expressions  in  the  literary  language  of  the  day.  But  while 
the  Ich  with  Fichte  expressed  the  highest  abstraction  of  personal 
existence,  the  corresponding  word  in  Sanskrit,  the  Aham  or  Ahaw- 
kara  was  always  looked  upon  as  a  secondary  development  only,  and 
as  by  no  means  free  from  all  purely  phenomenal  ingredients.  Be- 
yond the  Aham  or  Ego,  with  all  its  accidents  and  limitations,  such 
as  sex,  sense,  language,  country,  and  religion,  the  ancient  sages  of 
India  perceived,  from  a  very  early  time,  the  Atman  or  the  self,  in- 
dependent of  all  such  accidents. 

The  individual  atman  or  self,  however,  was  with  the  Brahmans 
a  phase  or  phenomenal  modification  only  of  the  Highest  Self,  and 
that  Highest  Self  was  to  them  the  last  point  which  could  be  reached 
by  philosophical  speculation.  It  was  to  them  what  in  other  systems 
of  philosophy  has  been  called  by  various  names,  rb  ov,  the  Divine, 
the  Absolute.  The  highest  aim  of  all  thought  and  study  with  the 
Brahman  of  the  Upanishads  was  to  recognize  his  own  self  as  a 
mere  limited  reflection  of  the  Highest  Self,  to  know  his  self  in  the 
Highest  Self,  and  through  that  knowledge  to  return  to  it  and  regain 
"his  identity  with  it.  Here  to  know  was  to  be,  to  know  the  Atman 
was  to  be  the  Atman,  and  the  reward  of  that  highest  knowledge 
after  death  was  freedom  from  new  births,  or  immortality. 

That  Highest  Self,  which  had  become  to  the  ancient  Brahmans 
the  goal  of  all  their  mental  efforts,  was  looked  upon  at  the  same 
time  as  the  starting-point  of  all  phenomenal  existence,  the  root  of 
the  world,  the  only  thing  that  could  truly  be  said  to  be,  to  be  real 
and  true.  As  the  root  of  all  that  exists,  the  Atman  was  identified 
with  the  Brahman,  which  in  Sanskrit  is  both  masculine  and  neuter, 
and  with  the  Sat,  which  is  neuter  only,  that  which  is,  or  Satya,  the 
true,  the  real.  It  alone  exists  in  the  beginning  and  for  ever  ;  it  has 
no  second.     Whatever  else  is  said  to  exist  derives  its  real  being 


642  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

from  the  Sat.  How  the  one  Sat  became  many,  how  what  we  call 
the  creation,  what  they  call  emanation  (rrpoodog),  constantly  pro- 
ceeds and  returns  to  it,  has  been  explained  in  various  more  or  less 
fanciful  ways  by  ancient  prophets  and  poets.  But  what  they  all 
agree  in  is  this,  that  the  whole  creation,  the  visible  and  invisible 
world,  all  plants,  all  animals,  all  men,  are  due  to  the  one  Sat,  are 
upheld  by  it,  and  will  return  to  it. 

If  we  translate  Atman  by  soul,  mind,  or  spirit,  we  commit,  first 
of  all,  that  fundamental  mistake  of  using  words  which  may  be  pred- 
icated, in  place  of  a  word  which  is  a  subject  only,  and  can  never 
become  a  predicate.  "We  may  say  in  English  man  possesses  a  soul, 
man  has  lost  his  mind,  man  has  or  even  man  is  a  spirit,  but  we 
could  never  predicate  atman,  or  self,  of  anything  else.  Spirit,  if  it 
means  breath  or  life  ;  mind,  if  it  means  the  organ  of  perception 
and  conception  ;  soul,  if,  like  iTaitanya,  it  means  intelligence  in 
general,  all  these  may  be  predicated  of  the  Atman,  as  manifested 
in  the  phenomenal  world.  But  they  are  never  subjects  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  Atman  is ;  they  have  no  independent  being,  apart 
from  Atman.  Thus  to  translate  the  beginning  of  the  Aitareya- 
upanishad,  Atma  va  idam  eka  evagra  asit,  by  "  This  (world)  verily 
was  before  (the  creation  of  the  world)  soul  alone"  (Roer),  or, 
"Originally  this  (universe)  was  indeed  soul  only"  (Colebrooke), 
would  give  us  a  totally  false  idea.  M.  Regnaud  in  his  "  Materiaux 
pour  servir  a  Phistoire  de  la  philosophic  de  l'Inde"  (vol.  ii.,  p.  24) 
has  evidently  felt  this,  and  has  kept  the  word  atman  untranslated, 
"Au  commencement  cet  univers  n'6tait  que  Patman."  But  while 
in  French  it  would  seem  impossible  to  find  any  equivalent  for 
atman,  I  have  ventured  to  translate  in  English,  as  I  should  have 
done  in  German,  "  Verily,  in  the  beginning  all  this  was  Self,  one 
only." 

Thus  again  when  we  read  in  Sanskrit,  "  Know  the  Self  by  the 
self,"  atmanam  atmana  pasya,  tempting  as  it  may  seem,  it  would 
be  entirely  wrong  to  render  it  by  the  Greek  yv&Ot  oeavrov.  The 
Brahman  called  upon  his  young  pupil  to  know  not  himself,  but  his 
Self,  that  is,  to  know  his  individual  self  as  a  merely  temporary 
reflex  of  the  Eternal  Self.  Were  we  to  translate  this  so-called 
atmavidya,  this  self-knowledge,  by  knowledge  of  the  soul,  we 
should  not  be  altogether  wrong,  but  we  should  nevertheless  lose  all 
that  distinguishes  the  Indian  from  the  Greek  mind.  It  may  not  be 
good  English  to  say  to  know  his  self,  still  less  to  know  our  selfs, 
but  it  would  be  bad  Sanskrit  to  say  to  know  himself,  to  know  our- 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  THE  EAST.  643 

selves  ;  or,  at  all  events,  such  a  rendering  would  deprive  us  of  the 
greatest  advantage  in  the  study  of  Indian  philosophy,  the  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  in  how  many  different  ways  man  has  tried  to  solve 
the  riddles  of  the  world  and  of  his  soul. 

It  is  impossible  to  find  an  English  equivalent  for  so  simple  a 
word  as  Sat,  to  ov.  We  can  not  render  the  Greek  to  ov  and  to  firj 
ov  by  Being  or  Not-being,  for  both  are  abstract  nouns  ;  nor  by 
"  the  Being,"  for  this  would  almost  always  convey  a  wrong  impres- 
sion. In  German  it  is  easy  to  distinguish  between  das  Sein,  i.  e., 
being,  in  the  abstract,  and  das  Seiende,  to  ov.  In  the  same  way 
the  Sanskrit  Sat  can  easily  be  rendered  in  Greek  by  to  ov,  in  Ger- 
man by  das  Seiende,  but  in  English,  unless  we  say  "  that  which  is," 
we  are  driven  to  retain  the  original  Sat. 

From  this  Sat  was  derived  in  Sanskrit  Sat-ya,  meaning  originally 
endowed  with  being,  then  true.  This  is  an  adjective,  but  the  same 
word,  as  a  neuter,  is  also  used  in  the  sense  of  truth,  as  an  abstract, 
and  in  translating  it  is  very  necessary  always  to  distinguish  between 
Satyam,  the  true,  frequently  the  same  as  Sat,  to  ov,  and  Satyam, 
truth,  veracity.  One  example  will  suffice  to  show  how  much  the 
clearness  of  a  translation  depends  on  the  right  rendering  of  such 
words  as  atman,  sat,  and  satyam. 

In  a  dialogue  between  Uddalaka  and  his  son  /Svetaketu,  in  which 
the  father  tries  to  open  his  son's  mind,  and  to  make  him  see  his 
true  relation  to  the  Highest  Self  (iT/? tindogya-upanishad  vi.),  the 
father  first  explains  how  the  Sat  produced  what  we  should  call  the 
three  elements,*  viz.,  fire,  water,  and  earth,  which  he  calls  heat, 
water,  and  food.  Having  produced  them  (vi.,  2,  4),  the  Sat  en- 
tered into  them,  not  with  its  real  nature,  but  only  with  its  "  living 
self  "  (vi.,  3,  3),  which  is  a  reflection  (abhasamatram)  of  the  real 
Sat,  as  the  sun  in  the  water  is  a  reflection  of  the  real  sun.  By  this 
apparent  union  of  the  Sat  with  the  three  elements,  every  form 
(rupa)  and  every  name  (naman)  in  the  world  was  produced,  and 
therefore  he  who  knows  the  three  elements  is  supposed  to  know 
everything  in  this  world,  nearly  in  the  same  manner  in  which  the 
Greeks  imagined  that,  through  a  knowledge  of  the  elements,  every- 
thing else  became  known  (vi.,  4,  7).  The  same  three  elements  are 
shown  to  be  the  constituent  elements  of  man  also  (vi.,  5).  Food, 
or  the  earthy  element,  is  supposed  to  produce  not  only  flesh,  but 

*  Devatas,  literally  deities,  but  frequently  to  be  translated  by  powers  or  beings. 
M.  H.  Kunte,  the  learned  editor  of  the  Vedanta-sutras,  ought  not  (p.  70)  to  have  ren- 
dered devata,  in  Kh.  Up.  i.,  11,  5,  by  goddess. 


644  TEE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

also  mind  ;  water,  not  only  blood,  but  also  breath ;  heat,  not  only 
bone,  but  also  speech.  This  is  more  or  less  fanciful ;  the  important 
point,  however,  is  this,  that,  from  the  Brahmanic  point  of  view, 
breath,  speech,  and  mind  are  purely  elemental,  or  external  instru- 
ments, and  require  the  support  of  the  living  self,  the  ^ivatman,  be- 
fore they  can  act. 

Having  explained  how  the  Sat  produces  progressively  heat,  how 
heat  leads  to  water,  water  to  earth,  and  how,  by  a  peculiar  mixture 
of  the  three,  speech,  breath,  and  mind  are  produced,  the  teacher 
afterward  shows  how,  in  death,  speech  returns  to  mind,  mind  to 
breath,  breath  to  heat,  and  heat  to  the  Sat  (vi.,  8,  6).  This  Sat, 
the  root  of  everything,  is  called  para  devata,  the  highest  deity,  not 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  deity,  but  as  expressing  the  high- 
est abstraction  of  the  human  mind.  We  must  therefore  translate 
it  by  the  Highest  Being,  in  the  same  manner  as  we  translate  devata, 
when  applied  to  heat,  water,  and  earth,  not  by  deity,  but  by  sub- 
stance or  element. 

The  same  Sat,  as  the  root  or  highest  essence  of  all  material  exist- 
ence, is  then  called  a?iiman,  from  awu,  small,  subtile,  infinitesimal, 
atom.  It  is  an  abstract  word,  and  I  have  translated  it  by  subtile 
essence. 

The  father  then  goes  on  explaining  in  various  ways  that  this  Sat 
is  underlying  all  existence,  and  that  we  must  learn  to  recognize  it 
as  the  root,  not  only  of  all  the  objective,  but  likewise  of  our  own 
subjective  existence.  "Bring  the  fruit  of  a  Nyagrodha-tree,"  he 
says,  "  break  it,  and  what  do  you  find  ? "  "  The  seeds,"  the  son 
replies,  "  almost  infinitesimal."  "  Break  one  of  them,  and  tell  me 
what  you  see."  "  Nothing,"  the  son  replies.  Then  the  father  con- 
tinues, "  My  son,  that  subtile  essence  which  you  do  not  see  there, 
of  that  very  essence  this  great  Nyagrodha-tree  exists." 

After  that  follows  this  sentence  :  "  Etadatmyam  idam  sarvam, 
tat  satyam,  sa  atma,  tat  tvam  asi  /Svetaketo." 

This  sentence  has  been  rendered  by  Rajendralal  Mitra  in  the 
following  way:  "  All  this  universe  has  the  (Supreme)  Deity  for  its 
life.  That  Deity  is  Truth.  He  is  the  Universal  Soul.  Thou  are 
He,  O  tfvetaketu."  * 

This  translation  is  quite  correct,  as  far  as  the  words  go,  but  I 
doubt  whether  we  can  connect  any  definite  thoughts  with  these 

*  Anquetil  Duperron  translates  :  "  Ipso  hoc  modo  (ens)  illud  est  subtile  :  et  hoc 
omne,  unus  atma  est :  et  id  verum  et  rectum  est,  0  Sopatkit,  tatoumes,  Id  est,  ille 
atma  tu  es." 


SACRED  BOOKS  OF  TEE  EAST.  645 

words.  In  spite  of  the  division  adopted  in  the  text,  I  believe  it 
will  be  necessary  to  join  this  sentence  with  the  last  words  of  the 
preceding  paragraph.  This  is  clear  from  the  commentary,  and 
from  later  paragraphs,  where  this  sentence  is  repeated,  vi.,  9,  4,  etc. 
The  division  in  the  printed  text  (vi.,  8,  6)  is  wrong,  and  vi.,  8,  7 
should  begin  with  sa  ya  esho  'mma,  i.  e.,  that  which  is  the  subtile 
essence. 

The  question  then  is,  What  is  further  to  be  said  about  this  sub- 
tile essence  ?  I  have  ventured  to  translate  the  passage  in  the  fol- 
lowing way: 

"  That  which  is  the  subtile  essence  (the  Sat,  the  root  of  every- 
thing), in  it  all  that  exists  has  its  self,  or,  more  literally,  its  selfhood. 
It  is  the  True  (not  the  Truth  in  the  abstract,  but  that  which  truly 
and  really  exists).  It  is  the  Self,  i.  e.,  the  Sat  is  what  is  called  the 
Self  of  everything."  *  Lastly,  he  sums  up,  and  tells  /Svetaketu  that, 
not  only  the  whole  world,  but  he  too  himself  is  that  Self,  that 
Satya,  that  Sat. 

No  doubt  this  translation  sounds  strange  to  English  ears;  but,  as 
the  thoughts  contained  in  the  Upanishads  are  strange,  it  would  be 
wrong  to  smooth  down  their  strangeness  by  clothing  them  in  lan- 
guage familiar  to  us,  but,  for  that  very  reason,  failing  to  startle  us, 
and,  failing  to  startle  us,  then  failing  to  set  us  thinking. 

To  know  one's  self  to  be  the  Sat,  to  know  that  all  that  is  real 
and  eternal  in  us  is  the  Sat,  that  all  came  from  it  and  will,  through 
knowledge,  return  to  it,  requires  an  independent  effort  of  specula- 
tive thought.  We  must  realize,  as  well  as  we  can,  the  thoughts  of 
the  ancient  ifo'shis,  before  we  can  hope  to  translate  them.  It  is  not 
enough  simply  to  read  the  half-religious,  half-philosophical  utter- 
ances which  we  find  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  and  to  say 
that  they  are  strange,  or  obscure,  or  mystic.  Plato  is  strange,  till 
we  know  him  ;  Berkeley  is  mystic,  till  for  a  time  we  have  identified 
ourselves  with  him.  So  it  is  with  these  ancient  sages,  who  have 
become  the  founders  of  the  great  religions  of  antiquity.  They  can 
never  be  judged  from  without,  they  must  be  judged  from  within. 
We  need  not  become  Brahmans,  or  Buddhists,  or  Taosse  altogether, 
but  we  must  for  a  time,  if  we  wish  to  understand,  and,  still  more,  if 
we  are  bold  enough  to  undertake  to  translate  their  doctrines.    Who- 

*  The  change  of  gender  in  sa  for  tad  is  idiomatic.  One  could  not  say  in  Sanskrit 
tad  atma,  it  is  the  Self,  but  sa  atma.  By  sa,  he,  the  Sat,  that  which  is,  is  meant. 
The  commentary  explains  sa  atma  by  tat  sat,  and  continues  tat  sat  tat  tvam  asi 
(p.  443). 

vol.  cxxviii. — no.  271.  42 


64c6  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

ever  shrinks  from  that  effort  will  see  hardly  anything  in  these 
sacred  books  or  their  translations  but  matter  to  wonder  at  or  to 
laugh  at;  possibly  something  to  make  him  thankful  that  he  is  not 
as  other  men.  But  to  the  patient  reader  these  same  books  will,  in 
spite  of  many  drawbacks,  open  a  new  view  of  the  history  of  the 
human  race,  of  that  one  race  to  which  we  all  belong,  with  all  the 
fibers  of  our  flesh,  with  all  the  fears  and  hopes  of  our  soul.  We 
can  not  separate  ourselves  from  those  who  believed  in  these  sacred 
books.  There  is  no  specific  difference  between  ourselves  and  the 
Brahmans,  the  Buddhists,  the  Zoroastrians,  or  the  Taosse.  Our  pow- 
ers of  perceiving,  of  reasoning,  and  of  believing  may  be  more  highly 
developed,  but  we  can  not  claim  the  possession  of  any  verifying 
power,  or  of  any  power  of  belief  which  they  did  not  possess  as  well. 
Shall  we  say,  then,  that  they  were  forsaken  of  God,  while  we  are 
his  chosen  people  ?  God  forbid !  There  is  much,  no  doubt,  in 
their  sacred  books  which  we  should  tolerate  no  longer,  though  we 
must  not  forget  that  there  are  portions  in  our  own  sacred  books, 
too,  which  from  the  earliest  ages  of  Christianity  have  been  objected 
to  by  theologians  of  undoubted  piety,  and  which  can  now  often 
prove  a  stumbling-block  to  those  who  have  been  won  over  by  our 
missionaries  to  the  simple  faith  of  Christ.  But  that  is  not  the 
question.  The  question  is,  whether  there  is  or  whether  there  is  not, 
hidden  in  every  one  of  the  sacred  books,  something  that  could  lift 
up  the  human  heart  from  this  earth  to  a  higher  world,  something 
that  could  make  man  feel  the  omnipresence  of  a  higher  Power, 
something  that  could  make  him  shrink  from  evil  and  incline  to 
good,  something  to  sustain  him  in  the  short  journey  through  life, 
with  its  bright  moments  of  happiness,  and  its  long  hours  of  terrible 
distress. 

There  is  no  lesson  which  at  the  present  time  seems  more  impor- 
tant than  to  learn  that  in  every  religion  there  are  such  precious 
grains;  that  we  must  draw  in  every  religion  a  broad  distinction  be- 
tween what  is  essential  and  what  is  not,  between  the  eternal  and 
the  temporary,  between  the  divine  and  the  human;  and  that,  though 
the  non-essential  may  fill  many  volumes,  the  essential  can  often  be 
comprehended  in  a  few  words,  but  words  on  which  "  hang  all  the 
law  and  the  prophets." 

Max  Muller. 


VII. 

EVOLUTION  AND  THEOLOGY. 

A  REJOINDER* 

In  the  last  number  of  this  Review  four  distinguished  represent- 
atives of  the  theological  school  of  thought  discuss  the  compatibil- 
ity of  the  views  of  Nature  on  which  the  scientific  philosophy  of  the 
present  day  is  founded  with  sound  doctrine  in  general,  and  with  the 
doctrine  of  design  in  Nature  particularly.  To  form  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  the  field  occupied  by  the  discussion,  we  shall  recapitulate 
the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  it,  beginning  with  some  pre- 
liminary considerations  of  a  general  character. 

All  reasoning  is  useless  unless  the  person  to  whom  it  is  addressed 
admits  the  premises  on  which  it  is  based;  and  all  profitable  dis- 
cussion must  either  commence  with  some  common  basis  on  which 
both  parties  agree  or  must  be  directed  toward  finding  such  a  basis, 
and  then  ascertaining  at  what  point  their  lines  of  thought  begin  to 
diverge.  Now,  in  the  discussion  of  the  theory  of  evolution  in  its 
various  phases,  which  has  been  going  on  for  the  last  twenty  years, 
the  point  of  divergence  has  never  been  clearly  brought  to  light. 
The  theory  in  question,  as  we  shall  endeavor  to  show  hereafter,  is 
founded  on  a  certain  fundamental  postulate  respecting  the  course 
of  Nature.  This  postulate,  being,  as  is  supposed,  proved  by  induc- 
tion from  present  observations,  has  been  used  as  a  general  key  for 
explaining  the  operations  of  Nature  during  unlimited  ages  past,  and 
for  forming  a  theory  of  those  operations  which  it  is  supposed  may 
hold  good  through  the  whole  universe  of  phenomena.  In  entering 
upon  this  daring  flight  of  thought,  scientific  thinkers  have  met  with 
unceasing  opposition  from  a  school  which  we  may  term  that  of  the- 
ology. But  an  examination  of  the  objections  of  this  school  fails  to 
show  where  their  line  of  thought  begins  to  diverge  from  that  of 
the  school  of  science.     They  have  either  built  their  arguments  on 

*  See,  in  our  preceding  issue,  the  symposium  on  "  Law  and  Design  in  Nature."" 


648  TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

an  entirely  independent  foundation,  or  they  have  attacked  the  con- 
clusions of  the  other  school  at  special  points,  without  making  it 
clear  whether  they  admitted  or  denied  the  general  principles  on 
which  these  conclusions  were  founded.  The  first  step  in  a  profitable 
discussion  of  the  subject  must,  therefore,  be  to  state  those  princi- 
ples, and  ascertain  whether  the  two  parties  agree  respecting  their 
validity. 

It  was  with  this  object  that  the  writer  opened  the  discussion  and 
propounded  the  question  which  will  be  found  in  our  last  number. 
He  entered  the  list  not  as  a  partisan  of  either  school,  but  only  as  an 
independent  thinker  desirous  of  ascertaining  the  truth.  To  him  the 
doctrines  of  the  one  school  appeared  clear  and  simple,  while  those 
of  the  other  did  not.  He  therefore  propounded  the  fundamental 
postulate  of  the  scientific  philosophy  in  its  most  comprehensive 
form,  explained  it  in  all  its  bearings,  illustrated  its  scope  by  exam- 
ples and  suggested  special  questions  by  answering  which  a  decisive 
conclusion  might  be  reached.  The  eminent  thinkers  whose  views 
follow  were  then  asked  to  explain  how  far  they  considered  the  pos- 
tulate to  be  consistent  with  sound  doctrine.  They  were  not,  as  one 
of  them  seems  to  suppose,  expected  to  accept  the  whole  or  none. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  left  at  liberty  to  accept  or  reject  any 
portion,  and  to  state  any  definite  limits  within  which  they  would  be 
willing  to  admit  it,  but  without  which  they  were  not  willing  to  do 
so.  In  order  that  they  might  proceed  in  a  way  to  be  fully  under- 
stood by  the  opposite  party,  the  propositions  on  which  they  were 
asked  to  pass  judgment  were  explained  point  by  point.  Finally,  as 
they  might  object  that  they  were  incompetent  to  express  opinions 
upon  scientific  questions,  and  especially  to  decide  whether  a  scientific 
doctrine,  that  of  evolution,  for  instance,  was  or  was  not  proved,  and 
ought  not  to  be  asked  to  commit  themselves  to  theories  of  the  basis 
of  which  they  might  be  doubtful,  they  were  not  asked  to  accept 
anything  as  absolutely  proved,  but  only  to  state  whether  it  would 
be  consistent  with  sound  doctrine  to  accept  it. 

Such  was  the  case  as  it  will  be  found  presented.  After  a  most 
careful  study  of  the  answers,  the  writer  confesses  himself  unable  to 
form  a  clear  idea  whether  his  interlocutors  accept  or  deny  the  pos- 
tulate, and  can  not  reach  any  other  conclusion  than  that  they  are 
unwilling  to  commit  themselves  decisively  one  way  or  the  other. 
At  least  one  or  two  evade  the  question  presented  in  a  manner  which 
it  is  extremely  difficult  to  account  for  on  any  other  ground.  For 
instance,  Dr.  Porter  begins  by  describing  the  opening  writer  as 


EVOLUTION  AND   THEOLOGY.  649 

giving  his  views  of  the  position  of  the  theological  school,  and  as 
failing  of  success  in  doing  so.  But  if  the  reader  will  refer  to  the 
first  and  second  pages  of  the  opening  article  he  will  find  that  the 
writer  makes  no  attempt  to  state  the  position  of  the  theological 
school.  On  the  contrary,  he  makes  it  clearly  known  that  the  raison 
d'etre  of  the  whole  discussion  is  that  he  does  not  know  what  the  posi- 
tion of  the  school  in  question  is,  and  desires  it  to  be  explained.  Then 
Dr.  Porter  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  arguments  arrayed  by  his  sup- 
posed opponent  against  a  purely  theological  doctrine.  Here  again 
he  is  equally  at  fault.  No  attempt  was  made  to  argue  in  favor  of 
the  position  taken  by  the  scientific  school,  and  it  was  distinctly  an- 
nounced in  the  opening  of  the  paper  that  no  such  attempt  would  be 
made.  Although  the  question  of  evolution  is  almost  purely  a  scien- 
tific one,  that  of  the  relation  of  evolution  to  religious  doctrine  is 
not,  and  belongs  to  a  class  with  which  the  scientific  thinker  as  such 
is  incompetent  to  deal.  The  most  he  can  do  is  to  assist  in  the  prep- 
aration of  some  logically  coherent  principles  on  which  both  parties 
to  the  discussion  may  unite.  What  follows  of  Dr.  Porter's  paper 
has  so  little  reference  to  the  questions  actually  propounded  that  only 
a  single  point  need  now  be  touched  upon.  He  criticises  the  various 
defects  of  the  postulate,  and  especially  its  limitation  to  the  succes- 
sion of  phenomena.  This  objection  is  difficult  of  comprehension. 
In  the  opening  paper  it  was  distinctly  stated  that  the  object  of  such 
a  limitation  was  to  ascertain  whether  the  two  schools  agree  about 
phenomena.  Admitting  the  existence  of  another  universe  than  that 
of  phenomena,  does  this  afford  a  sufficient  reason  for  declining  to 
express  an  opinio'n  about  the  latter? 

So  far  as  any  clear,  consistent,  and  decisive  expression  of  opinion 
upon  the  admissibility  of  the  postulate  is  concerned,  all  the  answers 
are  of  the  same  class.  All,  indeed,  have  this  in  common — that  they 
argue  vigorously  for  the  truth  of  a  proposition  which,  so  far  as  the 
writer  is  aware,  has  never  been  denied  on  scientific  grounds — 
namely,  that  there  is  design  in  Nature.  But  they  leave  their  an- 
swers to  the  special  question  propounded  to  be  inferred  from  the 
general  tenor  of  their  reasoning.  In  answer  to  the  bearer  of  the 
flag  of  truce  who  asks  to  know  what  terms  of  peace  can  be  ob- 
tained, a  general  alarm  is  sounded,  and  the  theological  artillery 
thunders  forth  in  every  direction,  but  the  flag-bearer  receives  no 
answer  from  which  he  can  clearly  see  how  the  war  is  to  end.  All 
he  can  do  is  to  make  a  study  of  the  returns,  and  see  what  he  can 
gather  from  them  respecting  the  views  of  the  other  party.     On  the 


050  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

minuteness  of  this  study  will  very  largely  depend  the  nature  of  the 
conclusions  he  reaches.  The  cursory  student,  taking  for  granted 
that  the  smoke  and  din  of  battle  necessarily  imply  a  conflict  be- 
tween two  opposing  forces,  may  infer  that  the  postulate  is  uncondi- 
tionally rejected.  But  the  more  careful  reader  who  knows  the  po- 
sition of  the  enemy  and  the  grounds  on  which  the  supposed  defense 
is  conducted,  may  see  strong  indications  of  a  readiness  to  surrender 
all  that  part  of  the  field  which  can  reasonably  be  claimed  by  the 
scientific  philosopher. 

To  appreciate  the  situation  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  ques- 
tion was  that  of  the  compatibility  of  two  schemes  of  doctrine,  one 
of  which  we  may  designate  in  a  general  way  as  that  of  the  univer- 
sality of  natural  law,  and  the  other  as  that  of  sound  theological  doc- 
trine. As  an  example  of  the  latter,  the  idea  of  design  in  Nature  was 
suggested,  but  the  interlocutors  were  of  course  expected  to  take  the 
term  in  its  widest  sense.  It  was  therefore  to  be  expected  that  those 
who  believed  law  and  design  to  be  inconsistent  would,  as  theolo- 
gians, reject  the  postulate  ;  while  those  who  held  the  two  to  be  com- 
patible would  be  ready  to  accept  it,  or  at  least  to  assure  the  reader 
that  there  was  no  occasion  to  oppose  it  on  theological  grounds. 
But,  curiously  enough,  instead  of  taking  either  of  these  views,  we 
find  that  all  make  a  show  of  opposing  the  postulate,  and  yet  all 
unite  in  saying  that  there  is  no  incompatibility  whatever  between 
natural  law  and  design.  That  is,  they  argue  on  both  sides  of  the 
question  propounded  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  reader  in  doubt 
which  side  they  are  on. 

It  is  true  that  between  these  two  mutually  destructive  positions 
an  apparent  avenue  of  escape  is  kept  in  view  by  the  theologians. 
The  turning-point  of  opposition  to  the  postulate  is  found  in  that 
portion  of  it  which  asserts  that  human  investigation  can  trace 
no  regard  to  consequences  in  the  operation  of  natural  causes,  and 
it  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  by  all  that  this,  in  terms,  excludes 
design  from  the  universe.  Surely  there  must  here  be  some  mis- 
apprehension. It  is  evident  that,  if,  from  the  proposition  that  no 
design  can  be  traced  in  Nature  by  human  investigation,  our  theolo- 
gians draw  the  conclusion  that  none  can  exist,  they  can  justify  this 
inference  only  by  taking  as  the  major  premise  of  their  argument  the 
general  proposition  that  there  can  be  no  design  in  the  universe 
except  such  as  human  investigation  can  trace.  In  other  words,  they 
assume  that  man  may  by  scientific  investigation  become  acquainted 
with  the  ends  which  the  Author  of  Nature  designed  to  accomplish. 


EVOLUTION  AND  THEOLOGY.  651 

Evidently  this  is  the  only  ground  on  which  the  inference  which  the 
theologians  seem  to  regard  as  self-evident  can  be  based.  Yet  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed  that  they  will  openly  maintain  this  claim  ;  in- 
deed, Dr.  McCosh  expressly  admits  that  there  may  be  cases  in 
which  we  can  not  find  out  the  purpose  of  the  Creator. 

We  can  hardly  suppose,  therefore,  that  this  portion  of  the  argu- 
ment against  the  postulate  was  founded  on  anything  but  an  inad- 
vertence. We  are,  however,  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  further 
argument  on  this  point  by  the  subsequent  course  of  our  interlocutors 
in  demolishing  the  only  foundation  on  which  their  argument  of  in- 
compatibility could  be  based.  This  they  do  by  further  arguing  that 
there  is  no  incompatibility  between  natural  law  and  design,  and  do 
in  a  manner  so  complete  and  satisfactory  that  their  scientific  oppo- 
nents are  relieved  from  all  necessity  for  maintaining  the  orthodoxy 
of  their  doctrines.  True,  there  is  still  one  point  on  which  it  would 
seem  that  the  contest  might  be  maintained — namely,  that  the  sci- 
entific side  conceives  of  natural  causes  as  acting  without  regard  to 
consequences,  while  theologians  do  not  so  conceive  them.  But  is 
it  not  of  the  very  essence  of  all  law  that  consequences  shall  be  dis- 
regarded in  its  enforcement  ?  We  conceive  that  if  we  accept  the 
fundamental  conception  of  law  entertained  by  all  men,  no  power 
whatever,  not  even  the  Power  which  made  it,  or  that  which  executes 
it,  can  hold  it  at  his  arbitrary  will  or  can  execute  it  in  different  ways 
according  to  the  result  to  be  obtained.  A  law  which  could  be  wield- 
ed in  this  way  would  be  no  law  at  all.  A  human  judge  must  not 
regard  a  man's  business  or  family  in  passing  sentence,  and,  just  so  far 
as  he  is  allowed  a  discretion  in  the  matter,  so  far  he  is  relieved  from 
the  prescriptions  of  law  and  not  governed  by  it.  In  other  words, 
his  action  is  governed  partly  by  law  and  partly  by  his  own  judg- 
ment. If  the  idea  of  the  laws  of  Nature  expressed  in  the  scientific 
philosophy  is  correct,  then  they  are  absolutely  inexorable,  leaving 
nothing  to  an  arbitrary  judgment,  and  thus  fulfill  a  condition  to 
which  human  laws  only  approximate.  If,  then,  in  arguing  the  com- 
patibility of  natural  law  and  design,  our  theologians  entertain  what 
we  conceive  to  be  an  almost  universal  idea  of  law,  their  argument 
is  altogether  on  the  side  of  the  scientific  postulate.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  have  a  different  idea  of  law,  and  infer  that  a  result  can 
be  one  thing  or  the  other  according  to  the  consequences  to  follow, 
and  yet  be  determined  by  law,  they  entertain  an  idea  of  law  which 
must  at  least  need  further  definition  and  illustration. 

The  question  reduces  itself  to  this  :  Can  a  law  which  is  enforced 


652  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

with  an  absolute  disregard  of  consequences  fulfill  a  purpose  ?  Each 
of  our  four  theologians  argues  so  vigorously  both  on  the  negative 
and  affirmative  sides  of  this  question,  that  the  scientist  might  pru- 
dently refrain  from  attempting  a  decision. 

Important  though  this  question  of  abstract  definition  may  be, 
and  much  as  we  might  desire  to  know  what  definition  of  .law  the 
theological  school  would  give  us,  we  are  relieved  from  the  necessity 
of  such  an  inquiry  by  the  circumstance  that  the  whole  question  can 
be  settled  by  a  decision  of  special  concrete  cases.  Now,  it  is  re- 
markable that,  although  the  views  and  arguments  presented  by  all 
the  theological  interlocutors  may  be  clear  and  satisfactory  so  far 
as  regards  abstract  generalities,  they  almost  entirely  refrain  from 
answering  any  of  the  special  questions  suggested  by  the  writer, 
which  would  enable  us  to  infer  their  opinion  of  the  question  under 
discussion.  Perhaps  the  most  decisive  concrete  question  presented 
was  that  of  the  adaptability  of  the  theories  of  the  motions  of 
the  planets,  where  seeming  absolute  certainty  in  regard  to  the 
future  is  attained,  with  the  general  doctrines  of  design  and  Provi- 
dence. Either  of  two  replies  might  have  been  made  to  this  ques- 
tion :  It  might  have  been  maintained  that  the  courses  of  the 
planets  did  not  symbolize  the  whole  course  of  Nature,  but  that 
there  are  certain  limits  of  time  beyond  which  our  inductions  will 
not  hold,  or  certain  realms  of  Nature  where  things  are  not  deter- 
mined by  laws  of  the  same  fixed  character  as  those  which  deter- 
mine the  motion  of  the  planets.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  it  might 
have  been  maintained  that  results  as  certain  as  the  future  conjunc- 
tions and  oppositions  of  the  planets,  and  the  past  and  future  paths 
of  eclipses,  were  especially  designed.  Of  course,  these  two  answers 
might  have  been  further  limited  in  various  ways,  but  the  reader  will 
find  no  meeting  of  the  question  in  either  way.  Dr.  Porter  alone 
discusses  it,  and  he  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  the  first  writer 
would  have  us  conclude  that  the  possibility  of  inferring  a  visible 
purpose  is  excluded  if  design  is  admitted.  He  then  presents  what 
appears  to  be  an  unqualified  acceptance  of  the  second  of  the  above 
suggested  answers.  Then,  in  reply  to  what  would  seem  the  very 
pertinent  question,  why  the  theologians  contest  a  question  the  truth 
of  which  they  do  not  deny,  he  replies  that  they  would  not  do  so  if 
the  scientific  men  would  insist  that  the  course  of  Nature  manifests 
design  as  truly  as  it  does  the  succession  of  phenomena.  So  far  as 
his  position  can  be  inferred,  it  seems  to  be  about  this  :  If  you  will 
admit  and  maintain  our  proposition,  we  will  maintain  and  admit 


EVOLUTION  AND   THEOLOGY.  653 

yours  ;  but,  since  you  refuse  ours  as  having  no  scientific  value,  we 
are  bound  in  retaliation  to  attack  yours. 

This  decisive  question  is  carefully  avoided  by  all  three  of  the 
other  disputants. 

What  we  have  said  of  the  different  conclusions  which  the  reader 
will  reach  according  as  he  reads  rapidly  or  studies  the  papers  closely, 
will  be  most  clearly  seen  in  the  contributions  of  Drs.  Clarke  and 
McCosh.  The  latter,  after  an  introduction  which  is  very  clear  so 
far  as  the  general  principles  stated  are  concerned,  attacks  the  second 
question  as  the  only  one  in  dispute  between  us  :  "  In  the  action  of 
Nature  is  there  any  regard  to  consequences  traceable  by  human  in- 
vestigation, or  necessary  to  foresee  the  consequences  ?  "  He  regards 
this  as  equivalent  to  the  inquiry  whether  the  existence  of  God  is 
shown  by  his  works,  and  of  course  contests  what  he  supposes  to  be 
the  scientific  view.  Most  curious  of  all,  however,  is  his  remark  that 
the  opening  writer  evidently  regards  law  and  design  as  inconsistent 
with  each  other — in  fact  as  opponents  and  rivals.  We  say  this  is 
curious,  because  the  writer,  desirous  of  saving  his  interlocutors  from 
wasting  their  arguments  by  proving  the  abstract  possibility  of  de- 
sign in  Nature,  went  out  of  his  way  to  say  that  the  scientific  postu- 
late was  not  opposed  to  the  doctrine  that  all  things  are  determined 
by  Divine  will,  and  were  designed  to  be  as  they  are.  It  would  seem 
that  orthodoxy  of  doctrine  is  not  to  be  tolerated  in  any  advocate  of 
the  scientific  school,  but  that  he  must  be  preserved  in  his  hetero- 
doxy, in  order  that  the  latter  may  be  duly  refuted. 

Putting  the  construction  he  does  upon  the  question,  he  of  course 
combats  it,  and  thus  satisfies  the  casual  reader  that  he  can  be  relied 
on  to  resist  the  encroa'chments  of  the  scientists.  Then  he  proceeds 
to  what  is  really  an  argument  of  the  most  conclusive  kind  in  favor 
of  the  scientific  hypothesis,  by  showing  that  under  any  other  system 
"  no  one  could  foresee  the  future  or  provide  for  it,  could  know  that 
fire  would  prepare  his  food  for  eating,  could  have  even  a  motive  to 
partake  of  food,  for  he  could  not  know  whether  food  would  nourish 
him."  As  this  argument  is  clear  and  conclusive,  we  accept  it  in 
preference  to  the  first. 

The  duplex  character  of  the  theological  position  is  perhaps 
shown  most  clearly  in  the  argument  of  Dr.  Clarke.  The  reader 
being  assured  that,  in  formulating  the  postulate,  the  word  "  antece- 
dent "  was  intended  to  mean  antecedent  in  time,  will  perceive  that 
he  begins  by  contesting  the  postulate  on  the  same  ground  as  his 
fellows,  namely,  that  it  excludes  design.     He  then  proceeds  with  a 


654  TEE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

very  vigorous  but  somewhat  old-fashioned  argument  for  design. 
Finally,  he  meets  the  question  which  is  really  the  one  at  issue,  Did 
the  cosmos  that  we  see  come  by  design  or  by  law  ?  But  he  thinks 
this  question  is  not  the  fundamental  one,  because,  admitting  it  to 
have  come  by  law,  we  must  then  inquire,  Did  these  laws  come  by 
chance  or  design  ?  But,  in  thus  trying  to  jump  over  the  head  of 
the  only  question  at  issue,  he  makes  what  is  really  a  complete  change 
of  base.  Scientific  philosophy  never  raises  the  question  whether 
the  laws  of  Nature  came  by  chance  or  design,  or  were  eternal.  The 
question  asked  was  one  respecting  the  course  of  Nature  under  exist- 
ing laws.  The  only  method  which  science  has  of  inferring  the 
course  of  Nature  outside  the  sphere  of  immediate  observation  is 
founded  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  laws  of  Nature  are  invariable, 
and  the  same  outside  this  sphere  that  they  are  inside.  Therefore, 
when  we  come  back  to  the  beginning  of  these  laws  and  ask  how 
they  commence,  you  pass  completely  out  of  the  sphere  of  science 
and  of  the  scientific  philosophy. 

It  is  not  of  the  slightest  use  to  tell  the  scientific  school  that 
they  ought  to  consider  this  question.  Even  if  we  granted  that  they 
ought  to  do  so,  they  can  still  justly  claim  that  we  must  agree  upon 
what  the  course  of  Nature  actually  is  under  the  existing  laws  of 
Nature  before  we  can  discuss  the  beginning  of  those  laws.  There- 
fore the  question,  did  the  cosmos  that  we  see  come  by  design  or 
by  law,  is  the  living  one  which  Dr.  Clarke  entirely  evades,  though 
indirectly  he  so  far  admits  it  as  entirely  to  destroy  the  basis  of  his 
opening  argument.  His  position  seems  in  brief  to  be  this  :  I  claim 
that  the  present  state  of  things  came  by  design  and  not  by  law ; 
but,  since  you  may  possibly  prove,  after  all,  that  they  came  by  law, 
I  then  take  refuge  in  the  fact,  which  you  can  not  contest,  that  those 
laws  came  by  design.  On  this  latter  point  the  scientific  philosopher 
will  not  join  issue  with  him,  because  he  is  concerned  only  with 
things  which  he  believes  to  be  within  the  realm  of  natural  law. 

The  most  lamentable  waste  of  argument  is  found  in  the  contri- 
bution of  Mr.  Cook.  He  devotes  the  greater  part  of  his  paper  to 
the  refutation  of  the  ancient  doctrine  that  adaptations  in  the  uni- 
verse came  by  chance — a  doctrine  which,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows, 
has  not  been  maintained  by  any  one  for  many  centuries,  and  which 
the  school  of  evolution  seeks  to  dispose  of  for  ever  by  showing 
that  they  came  by  law.  He  shows  very  clearly,  as  hundreds  have 
shown  before  him,  that  the  adaptations  which  we  see  in  Nature  ne- 
cessarily require  a  precise  reason  for  them  ;  but,  when  he  comes  to 


EVOLUTION  AND   THEOLOGY.  655 

the  question  whether  the  reason  given  by  the  school  of  evolution 
can  be  accepted,  he  "  passes  by  on  the  other  side." 

The  results  of  our  examination  of  the  four  answers  may  be 
summed  up  as  follows  : 

Considered  as  arguments  for  the  abstract  proposition  that  there 
is  design  in  Nature,  they  leave  nothing  to  be  desired.  The  scien- 
tific philosopher  can  have  nothing  to  say  against  them,  because, 
whether  he  admits  them  or  denies  them,  it  is  entirely  outside  his 
province  to  pass  judgment  upon  them. 

Considered  as  throwing  light  on  the  question  how  far  the  scien- 
tific philosophy  in  general,  and  that  of  evolution  in  particular,  can 
be  admitted  without  rejecting  final  causes  in  some  of  their  forms, 
they  must,  we  conceive,  be  regarded  as  unsatisfactory.  It  is  true 
that,  on  the  whole,  they  are  favorable  to  the  idea  that  there  is  no 
necessary  antagonism  between  the  two  systems.  We  find  in  more 
than  one  place  statements  which,  carried  to  their  legitimate  logical 
conclusion,  would  imply  that  any  man  who  maintained  that  the 
theory  of  evolution  is  in  any  way  inconsistent  with  design  in  Na- 
ture is  on  the  high-road  to  atheism — a  proposition  which  we  think 
will  not  be  received  with  favor  by  all  theologians.  If  this  view  had 
been  consistently  adhered  to  throughout  the  whole  discussion,  there 
would  have  been  scarcely  anything  to  say  in  reply,  and  the  reader 
might  safely  have  been  left  to  compare  the  attitude  of  the  writers 
with  that  of  the  churches  which  they  represent  toward  the  theory 
of  evolution  during  the  past  twenty  years. 

That  they  should  have  avoided  giving  a  direct  and  unconditional 
positive  or  negative  reply  to  the  question  propounded  was  to  be  ex- 
pected. An  affirmative  reply  and  acceptance  of  the  scientific  postu- 
late, as  at  least  consistent  with  sound  doctrine,  whether  proven  or 
not,  would  have  been  an  admission  that  the  great  war  which  has 
been  waged  by  theology  against  evolution  during  the  past  twenty 
years  was  without  justification.  A  very  attractive  field  of  contro- 
versy would  thus  have  been  abandoned.  On  the  other  hand,  an 
unconditional  denial  of  the  proposition,  as  inconsistent  with  sound 
doctrine,  would  have  been  equivalent  to  maintaining  that  the  whole 
progress  of  science  during  the  past  three  centuries  tended  to  the 
discredit  of  religious  doctrines,  and  that  the  latter  could  find  no  foot- 
hold whatever  in  fields  which  Science  had  conquered.  Every  phe- 
nomenon, after  being  reduced  to  natural  laws  and  explained  on 
scientific  principles,  would  have  become  a  weapon  wrenched  from 
the  hand  of  Theology  and  turned  over  to  its  enemy.    It  could  hardly 


656  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

be  expected  that  a  whole  school  of  thinkers  would  be  ready  to  take 
either  horn  of  this  dilemma.  But  the  writer  will  confess  that  he 
did  expect  them  to  grapple  with  the  problem  a  little  more  closely, 
and  to  make  the  exact  position  of  Theology  in  relation  to  evolution 
more  consistently  clear  than  they  have  done. 

In  the  minute  examination  we  have  been  giving  to  the  argu- 
ments and  positions  of  our  theological  interlocutors,  and  the  remarks 
respecting  the  position  of  the  scientific  philosophy  which  have  been 
occasionally  thrown  in,  the  reader  may  have  failed  to  gather  a  view 
of  the  actual  line  of  battle  ;  he  may  be  especially  bewildered  to 
learn  which  side  the  opposing  parties  are  taking  in  respect  to  the 
general  compatibility  of  natural  law  and  design.  We  must,  there- 
fore, ask  him  to  ascend  to  a  higher  plane,  and  trace  the  line  of  con- 
flict from  its  beginning  in  a  single  comprehensive  view.  If  in  doing 
this  we  shall  fail  to  point  out  anything  which  has  not  been  shown 
over  and  over  again  during  the  past  ten  years,  we  can  only  excuse 
ourselves  by  a  seeming  failure  on  the  part  of  large  numbers  of 
thinking  men  to  grasp  the  real  points  at  issue. 

The  whole  question  turns  upon  a  differentiation  made  by  the 
human  mind  in  all  ages  between  the  processes  of  Nature  and  the  acts 
of  mind.  When  a  tree  was  felled,  or  a  piece  of  coal  dug  from  the 
earth,  the  operations  were  those  of  a  directing  mind  having  an  end 
to  gain  by  them,  and  were  not  the  result  of  any  law  of  Nature.  It 
was  and  is  quite  obvious  that  there  is  no  law  of  Nature  prescribing 
that  coal  shall  be  dug  from  the  earth  or  trees  be  cut  down  at  certain 
times.  These  are  acts  of  will  and  not  processes  of  Nature.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  the  fuel  burns  we  have  a  natural  process  which  is 
the  result  of  an  invariable  law  of  Nature.  We  have  repeatedly  given 
what  seems  to  us  the  clearest  definition  of  the  distinction  to  be  made 
between  these  two  classes  of  causes,  by  showing  that  the  one  class 
go  on  entirely  without  regard  to  consequences,  while  the  other  have 
reference  entirely  to  the  results  to  follow.  Thus  we  have  a  wide 
and  unbridgable  chasm  between  the  operations  of  mind  and  the  laws 
of  Nature — a  chasm  which,  as  just  remarked,  has  been  recognized  by 
thought  in  all  ages.  We  trust  that  the  reader  sees  clearly  this  dis- 
tinction between  acts  of  will,  so  far  as  we  know  them  here  around 
us,  and  natural  processes. 

In  early  stages  of  human  thought  all  natural  operations  were  not 
looked  upon  as  belonging  to  the  second  class.  It  was  very  well  un- 
derstood that  the  acts  of  visible,  conscious  beings,  whether  man  or 
animals,  might  belong  partially  or  wholly  to  the  first  class,  and  that 


EVOLUTION  AND  THEOLOGY.  657 

the  operations  of  inanimate  Nature  belong  principally  to  the  second 
class.  It  is  with  this  definition  of  the  operations  of  Nature  proper — 
that  is,  all  of  those  processes  which  have  not  been  designed  by  the 
individual  will  of  man  or  animals — that  we  are  alone  concerned,  and 
which  we  alone  include  under  the  term  "course  of  Nature."  The 
processes  involved  in  this  course  of  Nature  were  in  the  beginning 
of  thought  supposed  to  be  divided  between  the  two  classes  already 
described.  Some  were  supposed  to  go  forward  in  accordance  with 
invariable  natural  laws,  acting  without  regard  to  consequences ; 
while  others  were  viewed  as  the  acts  of  beings  for  the  most  part  in- 
visible, possessing  the  power  of  modifying  these  natural  processes, 
and  so  changing  them  from  time  to  time  to  compass  their  ends. 
Thus  a  conception  of  Nature  which  has  been  termed  the  dualistic 
has  been  the  one  almost  universally  entertained  in  all  ages.  As  an 
example  of  dualism  we  remark  that  in  medieval  times  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  heavens,  the  falling  of  heavy  bodies,  the  course  of  the 
ordinary  breezes,  the  combustion  of  fuel,  and  the  deaths  of  men 
from  common  diseases,  were  all  viewed  as  natural  processes  ;  while 
the  appearance  of  the  comet,  the  rush  of  the  tornado,  and  the  out- 
break of  the  pestilence  were  viewed  as  partially  the  direct  result  of 
will,  acting  independently  of  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  so  having  a 
supernatural  origin. 

While  this  classification  on  the  dualistic  system  was  clear  in  its 
general  conception,  it  was  by  no  means  clear  in  its  application  to 
special  cases.  As  Nature  was  investigated,  it  was  found  from  time 
to  time  that  operations  which  had  at  first  been  supposed  to  belong 
to  the  supernatural  could  be  fully  explained  by  natural  laws.  Thus, 
there  was  a  constant  tendency  to  transfer  events  from  the  one  class 
to  the  other.  There  were  also  great  changes  in  the  conception  of 
the  characters  supposed  to  possess  these  supernatural  powers.  From 
being  divided  among  a  great  number  of  spirits,  many  of  the  lowest, 
but  none  of  the  highest  order,  the  power  was  gradually  concentrated 
under  the  monotheistic  system  into  the  hands  of  a  single  Supreme 
Being,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth. 

As  knowledge  increased  it  became  more  and  more  evident  to 
careful  thinkers  that  the  operations,  at  least  of  contemporary  na- 
tures, all  belonged  to  the  class  of  natural  processes,  and  thus  men 
divided  into  two  classes.  These  were,  on  the  one  side,  the  devout 
and  religious,  who  still  held  that  certain  occurrences,  of  which  the 
cause  and  natural  relations  were  obscure,  and  in  which  the  interests 
of  mankind  were  deeply  involved,  might  occur  one  way  or  the  other 


658  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

• 
according  to  the  arbitrary  fiat  of  the  Supreme  Will.  The  other  in- 
cluded the  less  devout  or  wholly  irreligious,  who  maintained  that 
the  classification  was  founded  wholly  upon  our  ignorance,  and  that 
an  increase  in  our  knowledge  of  natural  laws  would  result  in  ex- 
plaining all  occurrences  by  purely  natural  processes.  Thus  arose 
the  monistic  school,  which  maintained  the  absolute  unity  of  Nature, 
and  claimed  that  all  events  were  to  be  explained  by  natural  law. 

This  school  gradually  triumphed  in  so  far  that  intelligent  men 
gradually  ceased  to  make  any  specific  and  well-defined  claim  that 
the  course  of  Nature  was  modified  or  turned  aside  in  any  visible 
manner  or  in  any  concrete  case  by  the  action  of  the  Supreme  Will. 
But  there  was  one  field  into  which  it  was  entirely  unable  to  enter, 
namely,  that  of  the  adaptation  of  living  beings  to  the  circumstances 
by  which  they  were  surrounded.  The  structure  of  the  human  eye, 
hand,  and  ear  revealed  a  harmony  with  the  world  in  which  we  were 
placed,  and  an  adaptation  to  the  purposes  they  were  to  subserve, 
which  must  have  been  the  result  of  an  adequate  cause.  It  was 
clearly  seen  that  no  doctrine  of  fortuity  could  account  for  such 
adaptation.  The  resemblance  to  the  works  of  ingenious  men  who 
make  machinery  to  carry  out  preconceived  processes  was  so  great 
that  only  one  explanation  seemed  possible.  Man  and  animals  were 
the  direct  work  of  a  designing  Mind,  possessed  of  a  knowledge  and 
ingenuity  far  exceeding  that  of  man.  Thus  arose  our  modern  nat- 
ural theology,  devoted  to  showing  final  causes  in  Nature  and  relying 
for  its  proof  principally  upon  those  adaptations  which  we  see  in  an- 
imate Nature,  which  could  not  have  been  the  result  of  chance,  and 
which  to  all  appearance  could  be  accounted  for  only  by  the  doctrine 
of  final  causes.  Connected  with  these  ideas  is  the  popular  cosmog- 
ony of  the  present  day.  At  some  time  far  back  in  the  ages,  matter 
was  created  and  endowed  with  certain  properties  of  attraction,  re- 
pulsion, and  affinity  by  the  Omnipotent,  Self -existent  Mind.  At  an- 
other time  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  constructed  by  Divine 
art,  and  the  materials  so  wisely  adjusted  that  their  operations  should 
go  on  for  ever  in  exact  accordance  with  a  prearranged  plan.  At 
another  time  plants  were  started  growing  and  imbued  with  the 
power  of  continuing  their  kind.  At  another,  animals  were  brought 
into  existence  in  the  same  way,  each  species  being  an  independent 
creation.  The  spectator,  looking  down  upon  the  earth  at  one  time, 
would  have  seen  a  tree  or  forest,  at  another  a  lion,  at  a  third  a  full- 
grown  man,  possessed  of  all  his  faculties,  made  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  as  a  watchmaker  makes  a  watch.     Perhaps  he  would  also 


EVOLUTION  AND   THEOLOGY.  659 

have  seen  the  denizens  of  a  higher  sphere  walking  the  earth  and 
singing  together  in  joy  over  the  new  creation.  With  this  theory- 
is  associated  the  sublimest  conception  which  has  come  down  to  us 
through  the  ages — that  of  a  day  when  all  the  men  who  have  lived  on 
the  earth  shall  meet  face  to  face  ;  when  every  wrong  shall  be  righted; 
and  when  a  new  heaven  and  earth,  free  from  all  the  imperfections 
of  the  present,  shall  be  created. 

This  theory  may  be  considered  as  holding  supreme  sway  until 
very  recently.  It  could  be  opposed  only  on  grounds  of  general 
skepticism,  but  could  not  be  supplanted  by  any  other  equally  defi- 
nite. It  is  true  that,  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the 
promulgation  of  the  nebular  hypothesis  accounted  for  a  large  por- 
tion of  what  had  been  before  considered  creation  in  a  different 
way.  But,  beyond  making  the  creation  of  the  world  as  we  find  it  a 
natural  instead  of  a  supernatural  process,  the  reception  of  this  the- 
ory did  not  make  any  radical  change  in  the  ideas  of  men.  It  was 
also  too  recondite  in  its  nature,  and  too  far  removed  from  ordinary 
ideas,  to  be  appreciated  by  any  but  the  learned.  Most  of  all,  the 
creation  thus  accounted  for  was  not  one  which  had  been  supposed 
to  show  any  striking  adaptations  or  marks  of  design.  For  this  last 
reason  the  nebular  hypothesis  never  became  a  bitter  bone  of  con- 
tention between  the  monistic  and  the  dualistic  schools. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  contest  assumed  an  entirely  new  phase  by 
the  promulgation  of  the  theory  of  evolution  in  Darwin's  "Origin 
of  Species."  The  object  of  this  work  was  to  show  that  all  living 
beings,  with  their  adaptations  to  external  circumstances,  were  really 
the  product  of  natural  laws,  and  were  not  especially  created.  The 
attempt  was  made  to  show  that  these  beings  had  originated  in  the 
very  smallest  and  lowest  forms  of  life,  in  collections  of  matter 
which  could  hardly  be  defined  as  living  or  dead,  and  had  attained 
to  their  present  development  by  purely  natural  generation.  The 
processes  of  Nature  by  which  this  result  was  brought  about  were 
clearly  enunciated  and  classed  with  gravitation,  chemical  affinity, 
and  other  previously  known  laws.  Thus  the  monistic  philosophy 
sought  at  one  step  to  take  possession  of  almost  the  whole  field 
which  had  hitherto  been  occupied  by  natural  theology  as  its  exclu- 
sive domain. 

The  progress  of  the  new  idea  was  bitterly  contested  at  every 
step  on  the  part  of  Theology.  It  was  clearly  seen  that,  if  once  ac- 
cepted, it  involved  the  genetic  connection  of  man  with  the  lower 
animals,  and  the  elimination  of  the  supernatural  from  creation.   Nat- 


660  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

uralists  themselves  were  at  first  so  much  divided  that  it  was  difficult 
to  say  which  side  would  eventually  triumph.  But  the  more  care- 
fully the  theory  was  examined,  and  the  more  minutely  the  relations 
of  structure  between  allied  species  of  animals  were  studied,  the  more 
clearly  it  appeared  that  they  all  pointed  to  the  common  origin  of 
all  animal  life.  The  opponents  of  the  theory  gradually  fell  away, 
and  none  entered  to  fill  their  places.  So  complete  has  the  revolu- 
tion now  become,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  name  a  biologist  of 
distinction  who  still  opposes  it.  It  is  taught  by  naturalists  as  an 
established  law.  It  is  even  used  as  a  key  for  explaining  the  struc. 
ture  of  animals,  and  among  a  certain  class  of  thinkers  it  is  rapidly 
becoming  the  basis  of  a  new  theory  of  the  mental  faculties,  as  well 
as  of  the  material  structural  organization  of  man.  The  mind  of 
man  is  now  viewed  as  containing  an  epitome  of  the  mental  history 
of  his  ancestors,  in  which  those  faculties  inherited  from  the  brute 
nature  can  be  differentiated  from  such  as  are  the  product  of  civili- 
zation. Intellect  is  thus  studied  as  a  slow  development  through 
countless  generations. 

This  almost  universal  acceptance  of  evolution,  by  the  men  who 
ought  to  be  best  qualified  to  judge  of  its  truth,  is  a  fact  of  to-day 
to  which  it  would  be  folly  to  shut  our  eyes.  How  far  their  views 
are  well  founded,  and  what  objections  they  might  be  subjected  to 
on  sound  philosophical  grounds,  are  questions  upon  which  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  now  to  enter  at  length.  We  shall  only  remark  in 
general  terms  that,  in  the  present  state  of  biological  knowledge,  it 
does  not  seem  possible  to  frame  arguments  for  evolution  which  are 
not  based  on  the  theory  of  uniformity  in  the  methods  of  Nature. 
The  theory  of  special  creation  has  this  vantage-ground,  that,  once 
adopted,  it  will  account  for  anything.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  suppose 
one  thing  created  as  another — the  most  complex  animal  as  the  most 
insignificant  mass  of  protoplasm. 

Special  creation  being  thus  sufficient  to  account  for  anything,  the 
only  possible  objection  to  it  can  be  compressed  into  the  single  as- 
sertion that  that  is  not  the  way  in  which  Nature  does  business.  Evo- 
lution presupposes  that  we  have  discovered  the  plan  and  method  of 
Nature  by  induction  from  processes  that  we  see  going  on  around  us. 
The  most  general  result  of  that  induction  is,  as  the  writer  conceives, 
formulated  in  the  postulate  with  which  he  opened  this  subject, 
namely,  that  the  course  of  Nature,  considered  as  a  succession  of  phe- 
nomena, is  determined  solely  by  antecedent  causes,  in  the  action  of 
which  no  regard  to  consequences  can  be  traced  by  human  investi- 


EVOLUTION'  AND   THEOLOGY.  661 

gators,  or  is  necessary  to  foresee  the  result;  Evolution  itself  being 
founded  on  this  postulate,  we  are  justified  in  taking  the  latter  as  an 
expression  of  the  highest  generalization  of  science,  respecting  the 
course  of  Nature.  With  this  generalization,  evolution,  and  every 
other  conclusion  respecting  things  which  lie  without  the  range  of 
observation,  must  stand  or  fall. 

If  we  accept  this  postulate  with  all  its  logical  consequences,  how 
far  must  we  give  up  or  modify  religious  doctrine  ?  This  is  a  ques- 
tion which  the  scientist  is  entirely  incompetent  to  answer,  and  which, 
so  far,  the  theologians  have  utterly  failed  to  answer  in  a  satisfac- 
tory way.  It  is  one  on  which  the  evolutionists  differ  as  widely 
as  others.  We  may  contribute  a  single  suggestion  toward  an  an- 
swer, by  stating  what  we  conceive  to  be  the  relation  of  the  scien- 
tific postulate  to  design  in  Nature,  premising  that  our  views  have 
here  no  scientific  weight  whatever,  and  that  they  are  put  forward 
only  because  the  subject  is  neglected  by  those  who  are  more  com- 
petent. 

That  there  is  no  antagonism  between  the  scientific  postulate 
and  the  abstract  doctrine  of  design  in  Nature  is  an  opinion  which 
the  writer  has  repeatedly  expressed,  both  in  these  papers  and  else- 
where. The  abstract  doctrine  alluded  to  may  have  various  forms. 
It  may  be  supposed  that  the  whole  course  of  Nature  is  ultimately  to 
converge  toward  some  end  which  we  are  still  unable  to  foresee,  but 
which  is  completely  planned  out  from  the  beginning  ;  or  it  may  be 
supposed  that  everything  in  Nature  was  designed  to  be  exactly  as  it 
has  been  and  as  it  will  be.  In  these  and  allied  views  there  is  no- 
thing to  conflict  with  the  scientific  postulate — nothing,  in  fact,  which 
has  any  relation  to  it.  But  when  we  inquire  whether  we  know 
what  these  ends  of  Nature  were  and  are — whether  we  can  use  such 
knowledge  in  the  scientific  explanation  of  the  course  of  Nature,  or 
whether  the  latter  can  be  scientifically  explained  without  reference 
to  design — we  reach  questions  of  an  entirely  different  class.  It  is 
one  thing  to  say  that  there  is  design  in  Nature,  or  that  all  things 
were  designed  to  be  as  they  are,  but  an  entirely  different  thing  to 
say  that  we  know  these  designs,  and  are  able  to  explain  and  predict 
the  course  of  Nature  by  means  of  them. 

The  scientific  philosophy  entirely  excludes  design  as  affording 
that  explanation  of  Nature  which  it  desires,  that  is,  such  an  explana- 
tion as  will  enable  men  to  foresee  the  course  of  Nature.  It  is  true 
that  until  recently  the  theory  of  design  did  serve  a  certain  purpose 
in  explaining  the  structure  of  animals,  and  in  giving  that  foresight 
vol.  cxxvui. — so.  271.  43 


662  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

which  is  the  requirement  of  science.  But  it  was  gradually  found 
that,  as  a  scientific  theory,  it  wholly  failed  in  the  element  of  gener- 
ality of  application,  and  led  to  greater  and  greater  difficulties  the 
further  knowledge  advanced.  Finally,  in  the  opinion  of  the  large 
majority  of  naturalists,  it  was  rendered  entirely  unnecessary  by  the 
theory  of  evolution,  and  therefore  had  to  be  dropped  as  a  method 
of  scientific  explanation.  It  was  maintained  that  nearly  or  quite 
every  circumstance,  which  had  before  been  accounted  for  on  the 
theory  of  design  and  special  creation,  could  now  be  better  ac- 
counted for  on  the  theory  of  certain  permanent,  natural  processes, 
determined  by  invariable  laws.  Thus  it  is  sought  to  relegate  de- 
sign entirely  to  the  province  of  the  theologian,  who  can  place  it 
behind  all  natural  laws,  but  is  not  to  use  it  as  a  scientific  theory. 

The  relation  of  evolution  to  design  may  be  seen  in  a  yet  differ- 
ent light,  by  regarding  the  scientific  postulate  as  expressive  simply 
of  the  unity  of  Nature  with  respect  to  plan  and  method.  All  defi- 
nitions of  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  in  general  and  abstract  terms, 
such  as  we  have  used  in  formulating  the  postulate,  are  subject  to 
this  inconvenience  :  that  we  apprehend  the  meaning  of  the  terms 
used  only  by  their  unconscious  reference  to  special  objects.  As 
our  ideas  of  a  man,  an  animal,  a  metal,  or  a  color  are  derived  only 
by  having  special  objects  presented  to  us  to  which  we  have  learned 
to  apply  these  names,  so  the  ideas  which  we  attach  to  the  most 
general  philosophic  terms  are  derived  in  the  same  manner.  We 
may,  therefore,  avoid  a  possible  failure  to  understand  correctly  the 
idea  presented,  by  dispensing  with  general  definition  of  the  course 
of  Nature,  and  considering  the  postulate  as  expressive  of  the  doc- 
trine that  Nature  always  has  been  what  we  now  see  it,  and  is  in  all 
its  realms  as  we  see  it  around  us  every  day.  This  doctrine  is  some- 
times known  under  the  name  of  mo?iism,  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
dualistic  conception  of  Nature,  which  views  the  latter  as  involving 
two  distinct  classes  of  causes,  the  natural  and  supernatural.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  the  term  has  been  applied,  not  only  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  unity  of  Nature,  but  to  that  of  the  unity  of  mind  and 
matter,  which  is  an  entirely  different  and,  in  some  aspects,  an  an- 
tagonistic one.  We  have,  therefore,  preferred  the  term  scientific 
philosophy  to  that  of  monistic  philosophy,  in  treating  of  this  sub- 
ject. 

Which  term  so  ever  we  use,  the  result  of  the  doctrine  is,  that 
there  is  neither  more  nor  less  of  design  in  any  one  process  or  result 
of  Nature  than  in  another.     It  does  not  deny  the  striking  harmonies 


EVOLUTION  AND   THEOLOGY.  663 

cited  by  Dr.  Clarke  from  Janet,  but  only  maintains  that  these  har- 
monies, like  all  others,  are  products  of  natural  laws.  It  objects  to 
making  such  harmonies  the  basis  of  the  conclusion  intended  to  be 
drawn  from  them.  It  is  not  that  the  conclusion  is  necessarily  false, 
but  that  they  are  no  better  fitted  to  sustain  the  conclusion  than  are 
other  striking  harmonies  which  we  see  before  us  every  day,  and 
which  we  at  once  recognize  as  results  of  well-known  natural  laws. 
Without  attempting  to  penetrate  into  the  origin  of  the  creative 
power,  the  doctrine  maintains  that  this  power  was  never  exerted  in 
any  more  striking  manner  than  it  is  exerted  before  our  eyes  at  the 
present  time.  The  creation  of  all  living  beings  and  their  adapta- 
tions to  the  conditions  which  surround  them  are  results  of  a  process 
which  we  see  going  on  around  us  every  day,  and  which  depend 
upon  laws  as  certain  and  invariable  in  their  action  as  those  of  chemi- 
cal affinity  or  of  gravitation.  It  sees  throughout  Nature  a  certain 
life-evolving  power  which  shows  itself  in  various  forms,  as  heredi- 
ty— the  continual  increase  of  life — the  vis  medicatrix  naturae. 

If  you  ask,  Whence  this  power  ?  it  replies,  Whence  gravitation  ? 
whence  the  chemical  properties  of  matter  ?  whence  Nature  itself  ? 
It  sees  this  life-evolving  power  exerted  in  a  certain  relation  to  sur- 
rounding circumstances,  so  that  every  form  of  animal  life  has  a  ten- 
dency to  adapt  itself  to  those  circumstances.  All  life  not  adapted 
to  its  surroundings  is  necessarily  destroyed,  thus  leaving  only  what 
is  so  adapted.  Thus  Nature  is  viewed  as  one  grand  whole,  the  basis 
of  which  is  involved  in  mystery  in  every  direction,  and  which  the 
scientist  studies  simply  to  understand  the  relation  of  its  phenomena. 
Everything  which  lies  behind  or  above  this  he  leaves  for  investiga- 
tion by  other  methods  than  those  with  which  he  is  conversant. 

Such  is  the  highest  generalization  of  the  scientific  thinker  re- 
specting the  method  of  Nature.  Is  it  only  a  daring  flight  of  the 
imagination,  and  its  supposed  foundation  on  observed  facts  only  an 
idol  of  the  tribe,  which  a  rigorous  logic  will  show  to  be  entirely 
without  justification  ?  This  is  a  scientific  question  which  may  yet 
loom  up  into  greater  importance  than  it  has  heretofore.  Is  it  con- 
sistent with  religious  truth  ?  This  is  a  question  for  theologians, 
and  one  which  we  hope  they  will  answer  a  little  more  boldly  than 
they  now  do. 

Simon  Newcomb. 


VIII. 

THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


The  discovery,  in  1848,  immediately  after  its  annexation  to  the 
United  States,  of  deposits  of  gold  of  marvelous  richness  in  Califor- 
nia, created  an  excitement  hardly  less  universal  and  intense  than 
that  which  followed  their  first  discovery  in  the  New  World.  Cali- 
fornia was  another  Mexico  and  Peru,  far  richer  than  these  in  its 
mineral  wealth,  and  far  more  inviting  in  its  geographical  position, 
in  its  general  aspects,  as  well  as  in  climate  and  in  soil.  The  new 
State,  with  its  harbor  of  unrivaled  excellence,  was  mistress  of  the 
Pacific,  a  name  the  synonym  of  everything  mysterious  and  grand;  it 
fronted  the  great  empire  whose  population  makes  up  more  than  one 
half  of  the  human  race,  and  which,  with  all  the  fabulous  wealth  of 
the  Indies,  was  now  to  be  brought  into  immediate  connection  with 
our  own.  Our  new  Pacific  possession,  whose  area  exceeded  that  of 
some  of  the  most  powerful  kingdoms  of  the  Old  World,  and  whose 
wealth  of  minerals  and  soil  was  generously  thrown  open  to  the  en- 
terprising and  adventurous  of  all  nations,  became  almost  instantly 
— by  magic,  as  it  were — a  State  of  first-rate  magnitude  and  impor- 
tance. Between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  slopes,  however,  there  was 
no  geographical  relation  whatever.  Between  them  were  vast  moun- 
tain ranges,  penetrated  by  no  navigable  watercourses,  and  oppos- 
ing impassable  barriers  to  commerce;  and  which  could  be  crossed 
only  by  daring  but  feeble  bands  of  pioneers,  sufficient  neither  in 
numbers  nor  in  wealth  to  found  populous  and  prosperous  commu- 
nities. The  new  State  had  to  be  reached,  if  reached  at  all,  by  the 
long,  expensive  and  unhealthy  routes  by  way  of  Panama  and  Cape 
Horn.  The  obvious  mode  of  uniting  the  two  slopes — the  two 
widely  separated  geographical  systems  of  the  continent — was  by 
railroads,  the  marvelous  capacities  of  which  were  then  beginning 
to  be  understood.     To  the  construction  of  such  works  an  insuper- 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  665 

able  obstacle  was  opposed  by  the  attitude  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. For  nearly  2,000  miles  the  route  lay  through  the  public  do- 
main. According  to  the  popular  construction  of  the  Constitution — 
a  construction  of  almost  equal  force  with  the  Constitution  itself — 
the  nation  was  incapable  of  aiding  such  works,  or  even  of  granting 
charters  for  their  construction.  So  far  from  being  able  to  add  to  its 
means  of  well-being  by  a  liberal  exercise  of  its  powers,  never  was 
there  a  more  helpless  and  incompetent  organization  than  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  at  that  time.  The  ardent  and  enthu- 
siastic might  demonstrate,  beyond  question,  the  almost  infinite  im- 
portance of  a  railway  across  the  continent;  nay,  might  prove  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all  that  such  a  work  was  the  only  means  by  which 
the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  slopes  could  be  united  so  as  to  form  a 
political  as  well  as  geographical  unit,  and  that  without  it  the  two 
must  speedily  become  the  seat  of  rival  and  perhaps  hostile  empires — 
the  traditionary  policy  of  the  Government  could  no  more  be  over- 
ruled than  the  stern  decrees  of  Destiny  itself.  All  that  the  more 
patriotic  could  do  was  to  submit  to  the  inevitable,  and  picture  to 
themselves  what  might  have  been,  had  the  bettering  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people  been  one  of  the  purposes  for  which  our  Govern- 
ment was  formed. 

The  period  of  emancipation  at  last  came.  The  Southern  States, 
seeing  that  they  could  no  longer  wield  the  Government  in  the  inter- 
est of  slavery,  determined  upon  nothing  less  than  its  complete  over- 
throw. The  crisis  was  no  sooner  upon  it  than  the  North,  then  con- 
stituting the  Government,  inferring  its  powers  from  its  necessities, 
instinctively  and  instantly  made  a  bold  and  masterly  stroke  for 
empire  as  well  as  for  freedom.  The  Pacific  slope  was  loyal,  and  the 
Atlantic,  without  hesitation  or  doubt,  determined  to  render  that  loy- 
alty a  matter  of  interest  as  well  as  of  sentiment.  On  the  1st  day  of 
July,  1862,  as  soon  as  the  exigency  of  the  war  would  permit,  Congress 
chartered  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  committing  to  it  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  harbor  of 
San  Francisco,  California;  making  at  the  same  time  a  grant  to  it  of 
its  bonds  to  be  issued  at  the  rate  of  $16,000,  $32,000,  and  $48,000 
per  mile,  and  in  ratio  to  the  cost  of  the  several  sections  to  be  built; 
the  bonds  to  be  secured  by  a  first  mortgage  on  the  road,  to  bear 
interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent.,  and  to  be  payable  in  thirty  years. 
In  addition,  an  absolute  grant  was  made  of  all  the  odd  sections  of 
land  (640  acres)  within  twenty  miles  of  each  side  of  the  line,  or 
12,800  acres  to  the  mile  of  road.     Similar  provisions  were  made  in 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

favor  of  the  Central  Pacific  of  California,  a  company  previously- 
chartered  by  that  State,  and  which,  by  the  act  referred  to,  was 
authorized  to  enter  upon  the  construction  of  the  western  portion  of 
the  main  line,  and  proceed  easterly  till  it  met  that  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Company. 

By  the  terms  of  the  act,  the  corporators  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  (the  Central  Pacific  being  already  organized 
under  the  laws  of  California)  met  at  Chicago  on  the  1st  day  of  Sep- 
tember, 1862,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  provisional  organization, 
and  electing  as  officers  a  president,  treasurer,  and  secretary,  who 
were  charged  with  the  duty  of  procuring  subscriptions  to  the 
amount  of  $2,000,000  to  the  capital  stock  of  the  company,  upon 
which,  at  the  time  of  subscribing,  ten  per  cent,  was  to  be  paid.  The 
officers  elected  for  such  purpose  were  William  B.  Ogden,  of  Chi- 
cago, President,  Thomas  W.  Olcott,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  Treasurer, 
and  the  writer  of  this  article  (then  of  New  York)  Secretary.  The 
officers  so  chosen  immediately  began  a  canvass  for  subscriptions  to 
the  stock,  which  was  diligently  pursued  till  the  25th  of  September, 
1863,  when,  after  great  effort,  the  required  amount  was  obtained. 
Pursuant  to  the  provisions  of  the  charter,  a  Meeting  of  the  sub- 
scribers was  then  called  for  the  27th  of  October  following,  for 
the  purpose  of  effecting  a  permanent  organization  of  the  company. 
At  this  meeting  the  Hon.  John  A.  Dix  was  elected  President,  the 
Hon.  John  J.  Cisco,  Treasurer,  and  the  writer  of  this  article,  Secre- 
tary. 

Although  the  amount  ($2,000,000)  of  stock  necessary  to  the  per- 
manent organization  of  the  company  was  obtained,  and*ten  per  cent, 
paid  in,  there  was  still  a  general  indisposition  on  the  part  of  the 
subscribers  to  make  any  further  payments  ;  the  terms  of  subscrip- 
tion creating  no  obligation  therefor.  The  feeling  prevailing  in  all 
circles,  at  the  time,  in  reference  to  the  enterprise,  was  well  expressed 
by  the  Hon.  J.  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont,  then  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  in  a  speech  in  opposition  to  the  measure,  in 
which  he  said : 

I  am  not  to  be  deceived  by  any  promises  that  this  is  to  be  built  and  run 
by  any  other  parties  than  the  United  States.  Every  dollar  that  it  takes  to 
construct  the  road  is  to  be  contributed  by  the  United  States.  There  is  not  a 
capitalist  that  will  invest  a  dollar  in  it  if  he  is  to  be  responsible,  for  any  con- 
siderable distance.  ...  If  it  could  be  constructed,  it  could  not  be  kept  in 
operation  except  at  the  expense  of  the  Government.  If  this  road  were  built 
to-day,  therefore,  and  given  to  the  United  States,  the  United  States  are  not 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  667 

in  a  condition  to  accept  it,  even  as  a  gift,  if  compelled  to  run  it ;  nor  will 
they  be  till  the  population  has  so  far  increased  as  to  give  the  road  some  freight 
and  some  local  business.  As  a  commercial  and  economical  question  such  road 
is  utterly  defenseless.* 

Mr.  J.  H.  Campbell,  of  Pennsylvania,  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee which  reported  the  bill  for  the  road,  in  a  speech  in  its  support, 
said  : 

This  road  never  should  be  constructed  on  terms  applicable  to  other 
roads.  Every  member  of  the  House  knows  that  it  is  to  be  constructed  through 
almost  impassable  mountains,  deep  ravines,  cafions,  gulfs,  and  over  sandy 
plains.  The  Government  must  come  forward  with  a  liberal  hand,  or  the 
enterprise  must  be  abandoned  for  ever.  The  necessity  is  upon  us.  The  ques- 
tion is,  whether  we  shall  hold  our  Pacific  possessions  and  connect  the  nations 
on  the  Pacific  with  those  on  the  Atlantic  slopes,  or  whether  we  shall  abandon 
our  Pacific  possessions.  Gentlemen  are  not  to  apply  ordinary  rules  concern- 
ing roads  in  the  Western  States  to  this  great  enterprise.t 

The  enterprise  was  indeed  hazardous  in  the  extreme.  Vast 
wastes,  nearly  2,000  miles  in  extent,  were  to  be  traversed,  of  which 
the  far  greater  part  was  rainless,  and  consequently  destitute  of 
wood.  The  rich  deposits  of  coal  upon  the  central  portions  of 
the  line,  without  which,  if  built,  the  road  could  hardly  have  been 
run,  were  not  then  known.  Three  lofty  mountain  ranges  had  to  be 
crossed,  presenting  obstacles  far  more  formidable  than  those  ever 
encountered  by  any  similar  work.  For  nearly  1,500  miles  the  line 
was  elevated  more  than  4,500  feet  above  the  sea.  At  the  time  the 
road  was  chartered,  no  railroad  had  been  constructed  within  200 
miles  of  its  eastern  terminal  point,  which  was  nearly  1,500  miles 
distant  from  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  whole  material  for  the  super- 
structure, excepting  that  for  the  wood-work  of  both  roads,  had 
to  be  taken  from  the  Eastern  States,  or  from  England  ;  that  for 
the  Central  Pacific  to  be  transported  12,000  miles  by  sea  before 
reaching  San  Francisco,  the  western  terminus  of  this  road.  The 
officers  of  the  provisional  organization  shared  in  the  prevailing  sen- 
timent, and  appealed,  in  their  canvass  for  stock-subscriptions,  to  the 
patriotism  rather  than  the  capital  of  the  country,  to  come  forward 
and  save  the  charter  which  otherwise  would  lapse,  in  the  belief  that 
the  Government  would  make  such  further  provision  as  would  en- 

*  "Congressional  Globe"  second  session,  Thirty-seventh  Congress,  p.  1708. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  1712. 


668 


TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 


able  private  enterprise  and  capital  to  undertake  the  work  with  some 
reasonable  hope  of  success.  As  the  law  stood,  not  a  dollar  of  the 
Government  subsidy  could  be  made  available,  as  forty  miles  of  the 
road  was  to  be  constructed  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  issue  of 
a  proportional  amount  of  bonds.  These,  when  issued,  were  to  have, 
by  way  of  security,  preference  over  all  others.  Nothing,  conse- 
quently, could  be  done  pending  further  action  of  Congress,  but  to 
make  surveys  to  determine  the  route  proper  to  be  adopted. 

The  exigency  was  promptly  met,  Congress  passing,  on  July  2, 
1864,  an  act  which  provided  for  an  issue  of  bonds  by  the  companies 
of  an  equal  amount  to  those  to  be  issued  by  the  Government,  the 
former  to  have  precedence  by  way  of  security.  Such  provision 
practically  doubled  the  means  of  each  company,  securing  to  the 
Union  Pacific  fully  $50,000  per  mile  in  place  of  $25,000  as  pro- 
vided in  the  original  act ;  and  to  the  Central  Pacific  a  still  larger 
sum  per  mile,  from  the  greater  cost  of  its  line.  With  the  means  so 
provided  both  companies  fell  manfully  to  work,  constructing  the 
whole  line  within  a  period  of  a  little  more  than  five  years,  joining 
their  lines  on  November  6,  1869,  in  the  heart  of  the  continent ;  the 
Union  Pacific  constructing  1,034  miles  and  the  Central  Pacific, 
starting  from  Sacramento,  743,  and  anticipating  by  eight  years  the 
time  allowed  therefor  by  the  act  of  1864. 

The  following  statement  will  show  the  number  of  miles  con- 
structed annually  by  each  company,  and  the  total  mileage  for  each 
year  : 


YEARS. 

Miles  construct- 
ed by  Union 
Pacific. 

Miles  construct- 
ed by  Central 
Pacific. 

Total  construct- 
ed annually. 

1865 

40 
265 
245 
350 
134 

56 

38 

44 

362 

243 

96 

1866 

303 

1867 

289 

1868 

712 

1869 

377 

1,034 

743 

1,777 

The  road  of  the  Central  Pacific  was  subsequently  extended 
from  Sacramento  to  San  Francisco,  a  distance  of  140  miles  ;  the 
total  length  of  line  from  the  Missouri  River  to  that  city  being  1,917 
miles  ;  and  from  the  harbor  of  New  York,  3,322  miles.  Its  general 
direction  is  almost  exactly  east  and  west,  very  nearly  upon  the 
parallel  of  40°,  and  very  nearly  upon  that  of  New  York,  Chicago, 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  San  Francisco. 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  669 

When  the  obstacles  encountered  are  considered,  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  Pacific  Railroad  was  constructed  has  no  parallel  in 
the  history  of  any  work  of  the  kind.  The  line  crosses  three  lofty 
mountain  ranges,  the  Rocky,  the  Wasatch,  and  the  Sierra  Nevada — 
the  first  at  an  elevation  of  8,240  feet,  the  second  at  an  elevation  of 
7,500  feet,  and  the  third  at  an  elevation  of  7,042  feet  above  the 
sea.  The  summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  was  reached  by  a  com- 
paratively easy  ascent,  516  miles  west  from  the  Missouri ;  that  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  at  a  distance  of  125  miles  from  tide-water  at 
Sacramento.  When  the  base  of  this  range  was  reached,  31  miles 
from  Sacramento,  the  average  ascent  to  the  summit  equaled  eighty- 
three  feet  to  the  mile.  At  numerous  points  it  was  much  more 
rapid.  The  eastern  face  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  is  exceedingly  pre- 
cipitous, and  is  everywhere  broken  by  deep  ravines  or  canons,  in- 
volving in  the  construction  of  the  road  numerous  and  expensive 
tunnels  and  bridges.  A  most  formidable  obstacle  to  the  running 
of  the  trains  was  snow,  which,  during  the  winter  season  accumu- 
lates in  the  passes  to  a  depth  of  thirty  feet.  To  avoid  this  ob- 
struction, forty  miles  of  line  had  to  be  inclosed  in  sheds.  Another 
great  difficulty,  after  this  range  was  crossed,  was  the  want  of  water 
upon  the  lofty  and  arid  plains  between  it  and  the  summit  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  Sierra  Nevada,  the  summits  of  which 
reach  an  altitude  of  12,000  feet,  arrest  the  passage  inland  of  rain- 
bearing  clouds,  and  condense  their  moisture  on  its  western  face. 
Upon  the  Great  Plains  the  water  necessary  for  running  the  trains 
had  often  to  be  transported  long  distances,  till  wells  could  be  sunk 
and  the  water  raised  through  the  instrumentality  of  windmills  and 
steam-engines;  yet,  in  face  of  all  these  obstacles,  such  were  the 
vigor  and  capacity  with  which  the  work  was  pushed  that,  in  1868, 
712  miles  of  road  were  constructed  and  put  in  operation,  or  nearly 
two  and  a  third  miles  for  each  working-day,  and  that,  too,  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  continent,  in  which  there  were  no  people  except 
scattering  settlements  of  Mormons,  the  road  itself  being  the  only 
means  by  which  labor,  materials,  and  supplies  could  be  brought 
forward  for  its  own  construction. 

The  road  was  no  sooner  opened,  than  its  value  to  the  Govern- 
ment proved  to  be  far  greater  than  the  most  sanguine  had  ventured 
to  predict.  According  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
made  under  date  of  March,  1862,  the  average  cost  to  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  five  years  previous,  of  transporting  the  mails,  troops, 


670  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

and  munitions  of  war  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts  and 
intermediate  points  averaged  $7,309,341  annually.  The  route  for  the 
mails  was  by  way  of  Panama  and  Nicaragua,  through  foreign  states ; 
the  time  required  for  their  transmission  between  New  York  and 
San  Francisco  averaged  forty  days.  The  cost  to  the  Government 
for  a  far  greater  amount  of  service  of  the  same  kind  performed  by 
the  railroad  does  not  now  exceed  $2,000,000  annually.  The  yearly 
saving,  assuming  the  service  not  to  have  been  increased,  equals 
$5,309,431  ;  the  total,  for  the  nine  years  the  road  has  been  in  use, 
equaling  $46,547,155.  The  interest  accruing  on  the  bonds  issued 
to  the  two  companies  equaled,  during  the  same  period,  $30,750,316. 
The  saving  that  will  be  effected  previous  to  their  maturity  will  ex- 
ceed the  whole  amount  of  their  principal  sum,  and  all  the  interest 
accruing  on  the  same.  But  such  saving  is  by  no  means  the  only 
nor  perhaps  the  chief  advantage  resulting  directly  to  the  Govern- 
ment from  the  construction  of  the  road.  The  facility  with  which 
troops  can,  by  its  use,  be  thrown  either  upon  the  Pacific  or  into  the 
interior  of  the  continent,  relieves  it  from  the  necessity  of  maintain- 
ing permanently  large  bodies  of  them  at  points  likely  to  be  menaced. 
The  road,  in  fact,  supplies  the  place  of  a  very  considerable  standing 
army,  with  all  the  vast  expenditure  and  evils  resulting  from  such  an 
establishment. 

The  superiority  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  over  all  other  highways 
may  be  well  illustrated  by  the  results  of  two  memorable  expeditions 
across  the  continent.  In  1804  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  determined  upon  an  exploration  of  its  Pacific  possessions, 
then  just  acquired  through  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  In  the  early 
part  of  May  of  that  year,  an  expedition  known  as  Lewis  and 
Clarke's,  organized  under  its  auspices,  and  furnished  with  all  the 
means  and  material  it  could  supply,  started  for  the  Pacific  coast, 
taking  the  route  of  the  Missouri  and  Columbia  Rivers.  The  point 
of  departure  was  St.  Louis.  The  first  season  only  sufficed  for  it  to 
reach  the  Mandan  villages  upon  the  upper  Missouri ;  the  next  to 
cross  the  mountains  and  reach  the  Pacific  coast,  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia  River,  where  it  passed  its  second  winter.  Eighteen 
months  were  consumed  in  reaching  the  Pacific  coast.  It  reached 
St.  Louis,  on  its  return,  on  the  23d  of  September,  1806,  having  been 
absent  nearly  two  and  a  half  years.  For  more  than  two  years  no 
tidings  whatever  had  been  received  from  it,  and  for  more  than  a 
year  it  had  been  given  up  for  lost. 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  671 

On  the  first  day  of  June,  1876,  an  expedition  under  the  auspices 
of  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Scott,  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
Company,  started  from  the  city  of  New  York,  1,200  miles  east  of  St. 
Louis,  for  San  Francisco,  and  reached  that  city  in  eighty-three  hours 
and  fifty-three  minutes  consecutive  running  time,  the  distance  be- 
tween the  two  cities  being  3,322  miles.  The  weight  of  the  train  was 
126  tons.  The  rate  of  speed  for  the  whole  distance,  including  stops, 
equaled  forty  miles  the  hour.  The  distance  between  New  York  and 
Pittsburg,  444  miles,  was  run  by  one  engine  (without  stopping)  in 
ten  hours  and  five  minutes;  that  between  Pittsburg  and  Chicago,  469 
miles,  in  eleven  hours  and  thirty-one  minutes;  that  between  Chicago 
and  the  Missouri  River,  494  miles,  in  eleven  hours  and  thirty  min- 
utes; that  between  Council  Bluffs  and  Ogden  (the  western  termi- 
nus of  the  Union  Pacific  road),  1,034  miles,  in  twenty-four  hours  and 
fifty  minutes  ;  that  between  Ogden  and  San  Francisco,  883  miles,  in 
twenty-three  hours  and  thirty-eight  minutes.  The  route  was  across 
four  formidable  mountain  ranges:  the  Alleghanies,  at  an  elevation 
of  2,250  feet  above  the  sea  ;  the  Rocky  Mountains,  at  an  elevation 
of  8,242  feet  ;  the  Wasatch,  at  an  elevation  of  7,500  feet ;  and  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  at  an  elevation  of  7,042  feet.  Meals  were  regu- 
larly served  in  one  of  the  cars.  Another  was  divided  into  commo- 
dious sleeping-apartments  ;  so  that  the  party  traveled  with  every 
luxury  the  best  public-house  could  supply,  and  reached  San  Fran- 
cisco with  no  extraordinary  fatigue.  No  more  striking  illustra- 
tion can  be  given  of  the  progress  in  the  science  of  locomotion, 
and  none  of  the  value  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  as  an  instrument  of 
commerce  and  social  intercourse,  and  as  an  arm  of  the  Government. 
With  the  use  of  the  telegraph,  time  is  no  longer  an  element  in  the 
transmission  of  intelligence  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  slopes. 
With  the  railroad,  a  day  will  now  accomplish,  in  the  transmission 
of  persons  and  merchandise  between  them,  that  for  which,  within 
the  memory  of  man,  a  year  would  hardly  suffice. 

At  a  comparatively  early  period  the  movement  of  the  population 
inland  of  the  United  States  necessarily  followed  the  line  of  navigable 
watercourses,  not  only  as  a  means  of  reaching  new  lands,  but  of 
sending  their  products  to  markets  which  were  either  upon  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  or  in  the  Old  World.  Where  such  natural  avenues  did  not 
exist,  canals  were  for  a  long  time  regarded  as  their  proper  substitute. 
These  works  gradually  gave  place  to  railroads.  A  canal  could  not 
be  constructed  across  the  continent;  neither  could  a  railroad,  at  the 


672 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 


time,  without  the  aid  of  the  Government.  The  railroad  accom- 
plished, a  million  square  miles  of  new  territory  which  had  been  pre- 
viously inaccessible  was  at  once  opened  to  the  enterprise  and  capi- 
tal of  the  country.  They  were  no  sooner  made  accessible,  than  it 
was  discovered  that  the  sterility  of  the  soil  was  fully  compensated 
by  their  wealth  in  the  precious  metals.  To  reach  these  deposits 
branch  lines  were  speedily  opened,  the  resources  of  the  sections 
traversed  supplying,  in  great  measure,  the  means  therefor.  These 
laterals  have  already  a  mileage  threefold  greater  than  that  of  the 
main  line.  But  this  is  by  no  means  all:  no  sooner  was  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Pacific  Railroad  assured,  than  great  numbers  of  lines 
were  projected,  in  all  the  extreme  Western  States  and  Territories, 
for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  connection  with  it.  The  following 
statement  will  show  the  area  of  these  States,  the  present  extent  of 
the  mileage  of  their  railroads,  the  construction  of  which  is  in  great 
measure  due  to  that  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  the  progress  of 
such  mileage,  with  that  of  their  population,  from  1860  to  the  present 
time: 


Area, 
Sq.  Milet. 

RAILROAD  MILEAGE. 

POPULATION. 

1860. 

18TO. 

18T». 

1800. 

1870. 

18*9. 

88.531 
65,046 

81.818 

75,994 

104,500 

150,928 

84,476 

104,125 

188,982 

95,274 

97,888 

69,994 

73i 
28 

1,092 

2,688 

1,501 

705 

157 

65 

257 

598 

925 

159 

459 

2.532 

4,825 

2,521 

1.341 

1,288 

305 

506 

681 

2,165 

284 

465 

206 

275 

172,028 
674,918 
107,206 

28,840 

34,277 
4.  32  7 

40:278 

6,857 

879.494 

52,465 

11,594 

489,706 
1.1 94.020 
864,399 
122,998 
89,864 
14.181 

4 -.4:11 
680347 
90,928 
9.118 
23,955 

760.000 . 

750,000 

8O0.00O 

Kansas 

120,000 

75,000 
130,000 

Utah 

100,000 

California 

1 
120,000 

-SIMM  K) 

60,000 

Total 

1,192,045 

754    |   8,596 

16,794 

1,512,769 

2,988,688 

4,885,000 

The  States  included  in  the  preceding  statement  have  an  area  of 
nearly  1,200,000  square  miles,  embracing  almost  every  variety  of 
climate  and  of  agricultural  and  mineral  resource.  The  greater  part 
of  it  has  been  opened  to  settlement  by  the  Pacific  Railroads  and 
their  laterals.  Its  population  now  numbers  only  four  to  the  square 
mile.  The  ratio  of  its  railroad  mileage  to  population  is  one  of  the 
former  to  290  of  the  latter.  The  conditions  here  presented  show 
the  almost  infinite  room  and  opportunity  still  before  our  people. 
Extensive  portions  of  this  territory  can  be  cultivated  by  irrigation, 
the  lofty  summits  sending  down  an  abundant  supply  of  water.  The 
greater  part  of  what  was  once  supposed  to  be  worthless  for  agricul- 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


673 


ture,  and  which  can  not  be  irrigated,  is  found  to  be  admirably- 
adapted  to  grazing,  and  is  being  rapidly  occupied  for  this  purpose, 
the  Government  allowing  its  use  to  the  first  comers  without  charge 
till  it  can  be  sold.  These  lands  are  rapidly  to  become  the  great  seat 
for  the  production  of  wool  on  this  continent,  and  promise,  in  a  very 
short  time,  to  compete  with  the  Australian  product  in  the  markets 
of  the  world.  The  spring  rains  are  sufficient  for  abundant  crops  of 
grass.  Nowhere  else  can  wool  be  so  cheaply  grown.  There  is  no 
charge  for  lands.  The  animals  require  no  provision  nor  protection 
for  winter,  while  transportation  can  now  be  had  at  rates  which,  a 
few  years  ago,  would  have  been  considered  as  merely  nominal. 

The  chief  attraction,  however,  at  the  present  time,  of  the  great 
region  traversed  by  the  Pacific  Railroad,  is  its  mineral  wealth.  The 
first  discoveries  of  silver  within  it  were  made  in  1859.  At  that  time 
the  total  product  of  the  United  States  equaled  only  $200,000  an- 
nually. The  product  the  past  year  equaled  $46,720,314,  of  which 
$41,311,677  was  from  the  States  and  Territories  tributary  to  the 
Pacific  Railroad.  The  following  official  statement,  by  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Mint  will  show  the  product  of  gold  and  silver  in 
them  for  1877  and  1878  : 


California... 

Nevada 

Utah 

Colorado — 

Oregon 

Washington 
Dakota 

Total. . , 


1877. 


Gold. 


$15,000,000 

13,000,000 

850,000 

3,000.(100 

1,000,000 

800,000 

2,000,000 


$39,050,000 


Silver. 


$1,000,000 

'26,000,000 

6,076,000 

4,500,000 

100,000 

50,000 


1878. 


Gold. 


$15,260,670 

19,r>46.513 

892,000 

8,366,404 

1,000,000 

800,000 

8,000,000 


$36,725,000     |    $42,865,596 


Silver. 


$2,878,337 
28,180380 

5,288,000 

5,894,940 

100,000 

25,000 


$41,311,677 


The  total  amount  of  gold  and  silver  produced  in  the  United 
States  in  1877,  according  to  the  same  authority,  equaled  $84,050,- 
000,  of  which  $45,100,000  was  gold,  and  $38,950,000  was  silver. 
The  amount  produced  in  1878  equaled  $93,952,421,  of  which 
$47,226,107  was  gold,  and  $46,726,314  was  silver.  The  product  of 
the  United  States  for  1878  equaled  one  half  that  of  the  world  ; 
that  of  the  territory  opened  by  the  Pacific  Railroad  for  the  past 
year  equaled  $84,176,273,  or  nearly  one  half  of  the  product  of  the 
world.  The  rapid  increase  in  the  product  of  silver  in  the  United 
States  is  one  of  the  remarkable  phenomena  of  modern  times.  Since 
the  discoveries  of  silver  in  1859,  its  total  product  in  the  United 


674  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

States  has  equaled  $356,367,103.  It  seems  not  improbable  that  the 
product  for  the  next  five  years  will  amount  to  an  equal  sum.  These 
figures  have  great  significance  from  their  bearing  upon  the  much- 
vexed  question  as  to  the  probable  future  price  of  silver.  The  fall  in 
its  value  may  be  readily  accounted  for  by  the  enormous  increase  of 
the  product  in  this  country.  The  same  influence  is  to  act  with  far 
greater  force  in  the  future.  With  the  free  coinage  of  gold,  no  more 
silver  can  be  forced  into  circulation  in  this  country  ;  so  that  what- 
ever is  produced  in  it,  not  required  in  the  arts,  must  be  exported. 

Nothing  has  contributed  more  to  the  financial  or  monetary  in- 
dependence of  the  United  States  than  its  enormous  wealth  in  the 
precious  metals.  In  1876  the  Government  began  to  make  prepara- 
tions for  resumption  of  specie  payments,  which  by  the  act  of  1875 
was  to  take  place  on  January  1,  1879.  On  the  first  day  of  January, 
1876,  the  total  amount  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  national  Treasury 
equaled  $79,824,448  ;  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1877,  $96,517,- 
418  ;  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1878,  $139,518,405,  and  on  the 
first  day  of  January,  1879,  when  specie  payments  were  resumed, 
$224,865,477,  the  accumulations  in  three  years  equaling  $145,041,- 
029  ;  during  the  same  period  the  exports  of  specie  over  imports 
equaled  $13,324,963.  Resumption  can  be  accomplished  in  the 
United  States  without  drawing  a  dollar  from  the  hoards  of  the  Old 
World,  and  without  creating  any  disturbance  in  its  financial  circles, 
or — a  matter  of  great  importance  to  us — diminishing  its  power  to  con- 
sume the  products  of  our  agricultural  and  manufacturing  industries. 

It  is  the  peculiar  felicity  of  the  United  States  that  not  only 
does  the  increase  of  its  population,  which  is  at  the  rate  of  one 
million  annually,  tend  to  afford,  from  a  correspondingly  increased 
consumption,  a  speedy  relief  to  industries  whose  production,  for  the 
moment,  has  exceeded  the  demand  ;  but  that  the  vast  area  of  its 
territory,  possessing  every  variety  of  resource,  everywhere  made 
accessible,  and  everywhere  capable  of  being  turned  to  account  by 
labor  unassisted  by  capital,  as  readily  if  not  as  profitably  as  where 
the  two  are  combined,  exerts  a  constant  influence  to  draw  off  the 
excess  of  numbers  from  our  overcrowded  communities.  It  is  im- 
possible to  estimate  sufficiently  the  value  of  such  a  beneficent  influ- 
ence or  condition.  With  us,  the  greatest  evils  to  which  modern 
civilization  is  subject  work  out  their  own  cure.  Self-dependence, 
another  word  for  independence,  which  our  condition  begets,  not 
only  saves  us  from  a  vast  amount  of  indigence  and  vice,  but  tends 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  675 

to  keep  alive  a  manly  spirit  among  our  people.  No  sound  man 
among  us  feels  that  he  can  plead,  as  an  excuse  for  want,  our  govern- 
ment, our  institutions,  or  the  oppressions  of  capital.  He  can  readi- 
ly transplant  himself  to  some  plot  of  government  land,  his  entry 
giving  him  the  right  to  acquire  the  title  at  a  price  which  is  hardly 
more  than  nominal,  and  for  which  the  first  crop  will  ordinarily  suf- 
fice. While  the  Old  World  is  vexed  by  questions  of  labor,  and 
industries  are  destroyed  by  constant  strikes,  there  never  was  a  pe- 
riod in  this  country  when  so  many  opportunities  opened  to  labor 
and  capital  as  the  present,  and  never  one  in  which  the  material 
being  of  our  people  was  so  well  assured  ;  the  chief  factor  in  all  this 
being  our  crowning  achievement  in  the  physical  sciences — the  Pa- 
cific Railroads. 

These  roads  were  no  sooner  opened  than  their  financial  success 
was  as  striking  as  were  the  advantages  which  they  secured,  both  to 
the  Government  and  to  the  people.  California  had  at  the  time  be- 
come a  rich  and  prosperous  State,  the  value  of  her  agricultural  prod- 
ucts far  exceeding  that  of  her  mines.  San  Francisco  had  become 
the  center  of  a  vast  trade.  It  is  and  must  always  be  the  grand 
entrepot  for  the  whole  western  coast  of  the  continent.  It  is  to  that 
coast  what  New  York  is  to  the  eastern.  It  is  only  thirty  years 
since  it  was  founded,  and  it  now  contains  a  population  of  250,000. 
No  city  has  greater  elements  of  prosperity  or  a  more  promising 
future.  With  all  that  has  been  achieved,  only  a  lodgment  has  yet 
been  made  upon  the  western  slope  of  our  continent.  The  Pacific 
islands  are  still  in  the  hands  of  their  original  savage  populations. 
The  trade  with  China,  with  the  Eastern  Archipelago,  and  with 
Australia,  great  as  it  is,  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  For  this  trade, 
to  which  there  is  to  be  hardly  a  limit,  the  Pacific  Railroad  is  the 
avenue  to  the  interior  of  our  continent  and  to  the  Atlantic  coast. 
Already  does  the  Mississippi  Valley  receive  its  teas  and  silks  and 
other  products  of  the  East  over  it.  The  "  through  "  freight  over 
the  roads  last  year  equaled  nearly  200,000  tons.  The  way  freight 
of  both  roads,  consisting  largely  of  high-priced  ores,  equaled  last 
year  1,000,000  tons.  This  kind  of  freight  is  increasing  with  great 
rapidity,  keeping  pace  with  the  discovery  of  new  deposits  which  is 
constantly  being  made,  and  with  the  enlarged  working  of  the  old 
mines.  The  following  statement  will  show  the  length,  cost,  and  the 
gross  and  net  earnings  of  the  two  roads  from  their  opening  to  the 
present  time : 


676 


TEE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 


UNION   PACIFIC. 

CENTRAL  PACIFIC. 

YEARS. 

Ltngffc 

of  line 
worked. 

Cost. 

Gross  earn- 
ings. 

Net  earnings. 

Length 
of  line 
worked. 

Cost. 

Gross  earn- 
ings. 

Net  earnings. 

1870.... 
1871.... 

1872.... 
1873.... 

1874.... 
1875.... 

1876.... 
1877.... 
1878.... 
1S79.... 

Miles. 
1,034 
1,084 
1,084 
1,083 
1,088 
1,088 
1,038 
1,042 
1,042 
1,042 

$106,762,812 
112,396,812 
112,001,512 
111,620,812 
112,843,812 
115,767,812 
115,355,612 
115,019,012 
114,69-\01'2 
114,186,812 

$8,125,212 
7,563,006 
8,659,081 
10,666,117 
10,884,661 
12,481,204 
*7,786,'578 
1^.776.714 
12,756,354 
+7,128,S08 

$1,889,880 
8,793,843 
8,260.007 
5,184,391 
5,441,826 
6,481,688 
3,088,807 
8,817,091 
6,642,946 
4,44ft,623 

Miles. 
821 
997 
1,158 
1,221 
1,216 
1,218 
1,218 
1,218 
1,213 

$12S,217.180 
128,810,180 
134,715,180 
186,465,180 
136,962,180 
187,521.180 
137.588,180 
187.016,180 
187,000,000 

$7,488,970 
8,662,054 
11.963,640 
12,863,640 
18,611,080 
15.665,081 
15,811,088 
16.9^5.926 
17,580,658 

33,774.951 
5,021,251 
6.952.361 
7. -94.6-1 

7,611,012 
5,525,823 

t 

99,712,670 

48,548,084 

120,582,281 

62,959,671 

All  the  controversies  that  have  so  far  arisen  between  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  railroad  companies  relate  to  the  loan  to  them  of 
money  or  bonds.  The  loans  were  by  their  terms  to  be  due  in  thirty 
years.  No  part  of  the  interest  was  due  till  the  bonds  were  due.  They 
were  to  be  secured  by  a  second  mortgage  on  the  respective  roads. 
The  Government,  as  consideration  for  the  loans,  was  to  retain  one 
half  of  the  transportation  charges  on  its  account,  and  five  per  cent, 
of  the  net  earnings  of  the  companies,  to  be  applied  to  any  purpose 
it  saw  fit.  It  is  needless  here  to  repeat  the  argument  urged  at  the 
time,  or  to  restate  the  emergency.  Congress  would  have  the  road 
at  any  cost.  If  necessary,  it  would  have  made  its  loans  a  present 
outright  to  secure  an  object  so  much  desired.  It  would  gladly 
have  agreed  to  forego  all  repayment  could  it  have  been  assured 
that  the  line  would  have  been  completed  in  1869  instead  of  1877, 
the  time  fixed  for  opening  it  by  the  act  of  1864.  Instead,  however, 
of  inquiring  what  might  have  been,  let  us  see  what  is  now  the  legal 
status  of  the  companies. 

No  sooner  was  it  seen  that  the  road  was  to  be  a  success,  and  its 
owners  likely  to  receive  some  return  upon  their  investment,  than 
Congress  began  to  show  a  disposition  to  repudiate  the  contract  into 
which  it  had  solemnly  entered.  On  the  3d  day  of  March,  1873,  it 
passed  a  law  directing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  make  no 
payments  to  the  companies  on  account  of  Government  transporta- 
tion, in  order  that  the  whole  amount  might  be  applied  to  the  pay- 
ment of  its  loans.  It  had  the  grace,  however,  to  permit  the  bringing 
of  a  suit  by  the  companies,  in  the  Court  of  Claims  at  Washington, 
to  test  the  question  of  the  rights  of  the  two.  This  court  gave 
judgment  against  the  Government  for  the  sum  of  8512,632,  being 
*  For  eight  months.  f  For  six  months  ending  January  1,  1879. 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  677 

one  half  of  the  charges  for  transportation  on  its  account  for  1874, 
the  period  covered  by  the  suit.  From  this  decision  an  appeal  was 
taken  by  the  Government  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  which  fully  affirmed  the  action  of  the  court  below.  A  sin- 
gle quotation  of  ten  lines  from  a  very  elaborate  opinion  by  Mr. 
Justice  Bradley  is  all  that  need  be  given  for  a  full  and  complete 
understanding  of  the  whole  matter  in  controversy  : 

The  proposition  for  the  Government  to  retain  the  amount  due  the  com- 
pany for  services  rendered,  and  apply  it  toward  the  general  indebtedness  of 
the  company  to  the  Government,  can  not  be  construed  into  a  requirement 
that  the  company  shall  pay  the  interest  from  time  to  time  and  the  principal 
when  due.  It  was  in  the  discretion  of  Congress  to  make  this  requirement, 
and  then,  as  collateral  to  it,  provide  a  special  fund  or  funds  out  of  which  the 
principal  obligation  could  be  discharged.  This  Congress  did  not  choose  to  do, 
but  rested  satisfied  with  the  entire  property  of  the  company  as  security  for 
the  ultimate  payment  of  the  principal  and  interest  of  the  bonds  delivered  to  it. 

In  other  words,  Government  having  made  the  Company  a  loan 
of  money  on  thirty  years,  can  not  change  the  contract  so  as  to 
make  it  payable  in  one  year.  It  is  bound,  like  an  individual,  by 
what  it  has  undertaken,  and  is,  like  an  individual,  subject  to  the 
restraints  and  requirements  of  law,  as  determined,  not  by  itself,  but 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  act  which  authorized  a  suit  on  behalf  of  the  company 
against  the  Government,  also  directed  the  Attorney-General  to 
bring  a  suit  on  behalf  of  the  latter  against  the  former,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  recovering  back  moneys  alleged  to  have  been  wrongfully 
received  by  parties  connected  with  the  construction  of  the  road — 
the  real  purpose  being  to  overhaul  the  famous  "  Credit  Mobilier," 
that  terrible  raw-head  and  bloody-bones  whose  flagitious  conduct 
so  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  members  of  Congress,  the  action  of 
which  in  this  matter  makes  one  of  the  most  striking  and  discredit- 
able chapters  in  the  legislative  history  of  our  country. 

I  have  already  shown  that  those  who  undertook  the  construction 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  were  leaders  of  a  forlorn  hope.  To  be  con- 
nected with  it  was  enough  not  only  to  imperil  one's  money,  but  to 
forfeit  one's  reputation  for  business  sagacity.  It  was  natural,  there- 
fore, that  those  engaged  in  such  a  chimerical  scheme  should  seek 
some  mode  by  which  they  could  define  and  limit  the  degree  of  their 
liability.  In  casting  about  them,  they  came  across  a  charter  granted 
by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  incorporating  a  "  construction  "  com- 
pany, in  which  the  liability  of  its  incorporators  was  limited  by 
vol.  cxxvin. — no.  271.  44 


678  THE  NORTE  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

the  number  of  their  shares.  This  charter  was  secured,  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  Union  Pacific  road  built  through  its  instrumentality. 
There  was  nothing  whatever  improper  in  the  purpose  which  led  to 
the  use  of  this  intermediary — nothing  improper  in  its  use.  The 
result,  fortunately,  showed  such  use  to  have  been  wholly  unneces- 
sary. The  stockholders  of  the  Union  Pacific  would  have  risked 
nothing  by  becoming  full  partners  in  the  work  of  construction. 
The  enterprise  was  an  entire  success.  Every  person  to  whom  a 
cent  was  owing  was  fully  paid.  Not  a  dollar  was  made  by  parties 
interested  in  the  road  by  the  use  of  the  "  Credit  Mobilier,"  that 
would  not  have  been  made  without  it.  As  things  turned  out,  it 
would  have  been  better  had  it  never  been  resorted  to  ;  but  neither 
in  motive  nor  in  act  should  such  resort  have  reflected  the  least  dis- 
credit upon  the  parties  to  it.  Nor  was  there  anything  in  its  opera- 
tions that  might  not  have  properly  been  laid  open  to  the  light  of 
day.  So  much  for  a  great  scandal  which  was  no  wrong  till  made 
such  by  the  fear,  the  jealousy,  or  something  worse,  of  Congress, 
which,  by  its  utterly  groundless  attacks  and  insinuations,  lashed  the 
whole  nation  into  a  paroxysm  of  passion  almost  as  fierce  and  as 
groundless  as  that  occasioned  by  the  famous  Titus  Oates's  Popish 
plot,  which,  for  a  time,  deprived  the  people  of  England  of  all  sense 
and  reason,  and  led  them  into  excesses  which  rendered  the  name  of 
their  authors  the  synonym  of  criminality  and  folly,  and  left  an  in- 
delible stain  on  the  age  in  which  they  occurred. 

To  the  suit  brought  by  the  Government  in  the  Circuit  Court  for 
the  District  of  Connecticut,  all  connected  with  the  "  Credit  Mobi- 
lier "  or  the  Union  Pacific,  that  could  be  reached,  were  made  parties. 
Legal  ingenuity  was  exhausted  in  framing  charges,  the  act  giving 
the  widest  tether  possible.  The  world,  of  the  United  States  at 
least,  was  racked  for  evidence  to  criminate  the  defendants.  No 
sooner,  however,  was  argument  had  in  the  Circuit  Court,  than  the 
Government — the  plaintiff — was  politely  bowed  out  of  it,  on  the 
ground  that  no  cause  of  action  whatever  had  been  shown  or  even 
alleged.  The  defendant  owed  it  nothing.  An  appeal  was  taken 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  with  the  same  result, 
that  tribunal  reiterating  its  previous  decision  that  the  controversy 
arose  out  of  a  contract  for  money  ;  that  this  contract,  which  had 
been  kept  by  the  defendant,  had  been  violated  by  the  plaintiff  ; 
and  that  the  latter  had  no  cause  of  action,  and  no  standing  before  it. 

Government  having  been  foiled  in  the  suit  brought  by  the  com- 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD.  679 

pany,  the  decision  in  which  covered  the  whole  ground  of  contro- 
versy, it  would  have  been  supposed  that  Congress,  pending  the 
action  it  directed  to  be  brought,  would  have  quietly  awaited  the 
result.  Instead  of  this,  it  took  the  law  into  its  own  hand,  and  on 
the  8th  of  May,  1878,  passed  the  famous  "  Thurman  Bill,"  which, 
among  other  things  (section  4),  provided  that — 

There  shall  be  carried  to  the  credit  of  the  said  (sinking)  fund  (created  by 
this  act)  on  the  first  day  of  February  in  each  year  the  one  half  of  the  com- 
pensation for  services  hereinbefore  named,  rendered  for  the  Government  by 
the  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  not  applied  in  liquidation  of  in- 
terest ;  and,  in  addition  thereto,  the  said  company  shall,  on  said  day  in  each 
year,  pay  into  the  Treasury,  to  the  credit  of  said  sinking  fund,  the  sum  of 
$1,200,000,  or  so  much  thereof  as  shall  bo  necessary  to  make  the  five  per 
centum  of  the  net  earnings  of  its  said  road  payable  to  the  United  States,  un- 
der said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  the  whole  sum  earned  by 
it  as  compensation  for  services  rendered  for  the  United  States,  together  with 
the  sum  by  this  section  required  to  be  paid,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
twenty-five  per  centum  of  the  whole  net  earnings  of  the  said  railroad  com- 
pany, ascertained  and  defined  as  hereinbefore  provided,  for  the  year  ending 
on  the  thirty- first  day  of  December  next  preceding. 

The  preceding  provision  was  by  a  subsequent  section  made  appli- 
cable to  the  Union  Pacific  Company.  The  penalty  for  not  making 
payment  of  a  debt  before  it  was  due  was  the  forfeiture  of  the  char- 
ters of  the  companies,  although  that  of  the  Central  Pacific  was  de- 
rived, not  from  the  United  States,  but  from  the  State  of  California ! 
The  act  in  effect  said  to  the  companies  that,  "  unless  you  pay  your 
debts  before  they  are  due,  your  charters,  with  all  your  rights,  priv- 
ileges, and  property,  shall  be  taken  away,"  involving,  perhaps, 
the  entire  loss  of  their  investments  by  the  unsecured  bond-holders, 
without  whose  contributions  the  roads  could  not  have  been  built, 
and  which  added  an  equal  amount  to  the  value  of  the  Govern- 
ment security,  which,  without  such  contributions,  might  not  have 
had  the  value  of  a  dollar  !  Such  are  Congressional  ideas  of  fair 
play  !  Fortunately,  the  will  of  Congress  is  not  the  law  of  the  land. 
That  will  is  made  to  depend  upon  a  power  higher  than  its  own. 
When  an  individual  violates  a  law  of  the  Government,  the  latter 
can  punish  him  only  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  court  of  law. 
It  must  proceed  in  the  same  manner  when  it  would  punish  one  of 
its  own  creatures — a  corporation.  It  may  allege  an  offense,  but 
this  is  all.  By  virtue  of  such  corporation,  capital  may  have  been 
invested  which  Government  can  no  more  disturb  or  seize  than  it 
can  that  of  an  individual.     It  "  may  add  to,  alter,  amend,  or  repeal 


680  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

the  charter  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  having  due  re- 
gard to  the  rights  of  the  latter."  Who  is  to  pass  upon  these  rights  ? 
Certainly  not  a  party  to  them.  Congress  is  not  a  court  of  law.  A 
declaration  by  it  that  the  charter  of  this  company  was  forfeit  would 
not  necessarily  carry  any  greater  legal  force  against  it  than  a^similar 
declaration  by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain.  Should  Congress 
declare  its  charter  to  be  forfeit,  and,  with  no  other  warrant,  proceed 
to  act  in  the  premises,  it  or  its  agents  would  be  instantly  restrained 
by  a  power  higher  than  its  own.  We  need  not,  however,  enlarge 
upon  this  point  by  recapitulating  rules  or  principles  familiar  to 
every  tyro  in  the  legal  profession.  The  Thurman  Bill  was  simply 
a  gross  and  unwarranted  assumption  of  power.  It  assumed  to 
constitute  Congress  a  judicial  as  well  as  a  legislative  tribunal,  and 
that  too  in  open  violation  of  the  Constitution.  Its  framers,  in  sepa- 
rating the  two  by  vesting  in  the  Supreme  Court  the  authority  to 
declare  what  is  law,  had  in  their  minds  a  contingency  precisely  like 
the  present.  But  for  their  wisdom  we  should  be  living  under  a  des- 
potism of  caprice  or  passion,  or  something  worse  ;  not  under  the  be- 
nign reign  of  law.  The  Thurman  Bill,  should  it  stand,  is  anarchy — 
is  revolution.  If  not  the  first,  it  is  the  most  fatal  stab  which,  in  this 
country,  social  order  and  the  rights  of  property  have  yet  received. 

Henry  V.  Poor. 

P.  S. — The  preceding  article  was  sent  for  publication  before  the 
decision  was  had  in  an  action  to  which  the  Central  Pacific  was  party, 
and  which  presented  the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  Thur- 
man Bill.  The  ink  which  recorded  the  solemn  declarations  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  the  two  preceding  cases,  that  Government  could 
not,  until  it  was  due,  enforce  the  payment  of  a  debt  due  to  it,  was 
hardly  dry,  before  these  declarations  were  disavowed  by  the  very 
tribunal  which  uttered  them  ;  the  Court  in  the  latter  case  holding 
that,  under  the  provision  authorizing  the  amendment  of  the  charter 
of  the  company,  the  Government  could  enforce  the  payment  of  a 
debt  before  it  was  due  !  It  could  take  every  dollar  of  the  net  earn- 
ings without  reserving  a  cent  for  the  unsecured  bondholders,  with- 
out whose  money  it  could  not  have  had  adequate  security  for  its 
loan.  If  possible,  the  Supreme  Court  has  shown  far  less  sense  of 
justice  and  consistency  than  Congress  itself.  There  now  appears  in 
this  Government  to  be  no  barrier  to  the  reckless  exercise  of  self- 
will,  passion,  caprice,  or  lust  of  power  on  the  part  either  of  its 
executive  or  legislative  departments. 


IX. 

CURRENT  LITERATURE. 

1.  Smith's  Carthage  and  the  Carthaginians. 

2.  Seeley's  Life  and  Times  of  Stein. 

3.  De.Broglie's  Le  Secret  du  Roi. 

4.  Sime's  Lessing. 

5.  Howells's  The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook. 


There  is  a  strange  fascination  in  what  may  be  called  the  victims 
of  history — in  those  vanquished  and  extinguished  nations  whose 
literature  perished  with  them,  or  is  suffered  to  molder  in  the  dust 
of  labyrinthine  libraries.  In  such  cases  the  generous  and  truth- 
seeking  student  feels  himself  impelled  to  hold  a  brief  for  the  de- 
feated and  discredited  party,  to  scrutinize  the  indictment,  and  dis- 
sect the  evidence  brought  forward  by  the  stronger  side  with  pecu- 
liar wariness,  and,  whenever  ground  for  it  may  be  discerned,  to  in- 
terpret shortcomings  and  explain  untoward  facts  from  the  most 
lenient  and  favorable  point  of  view.  Such  an  attitude  was  taken 
by  Conde,  whose  "  Dominacion  de  los  Arabes  y  de  los  Moros  en 
Espana  "  drew  for  the  first  time  from  Arabic  sources  and  in  Ara- 
bic colors  the  story  of  the  prolonged  triumph  and  the  long  agony 
of  the  Spanish  Moslems.  A  like  service  for  the  disinherited  of 
history  was  attempted  by  Gustave  Flaubert,  when  he  gave  some 
years  of  his  life,  and  the  singular  power  of  synthesis  and  divina- 
tion revealed  in  Madame  Bovary,  to  the  resurrection  of  Cartha- 
ginian life  and  the  portrayal  of  the  father  and  the  sister  of  Han- 
nibal. In  "  Salambo "  all  the  faint  and  scattered  rays  cast  by 
history  and  archaeology  on  the  social  and  domestic  aspects  of  the 
Punic  world,  and  on  the  personal  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Barca  are 
condensed  into  a  focus,  and  made  to  infuse  a  notable  degree  of 
warmth  and  vitality  into  the  romancer's  pages.  What  was  needed, 
however,  was  a  comprehensive  history  written  in  the  same  sympa- 


682  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

thetic  spirit,  and  with  the  same  cautious  treatment  of  Roman  asser- 
tions, and  this  has  at  last  been  furnished,  or  rather  a  creditable 
effort  has  been  made  in  this  direction,  by  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith,  the 
author  of  a  well-known  work  on  "  Mohammed  and  the  Mohamme- 
dans." *  Whether  the  native  literature  of  Carthage  has  indeed  utter- 
ly perished,  or  whether  part  of  it  may  survive,  at  least  in  the  form  of 
Arabic  translations,  can  not  be  determined  with  absolute  certainty, 
so  long  as  the  great  repositories  of  manuscripts  thought  to  exist  in 
Fez  and  Morocco  are  wholly  unexplored.  The  rich  contents  of  the 
Carthaginian  libraries  were  turned  over  by  the  Romans  to  Xumidian 
chieftains,  and  it  appears  that  Sallust  had  some  of  these  books  in 
his  hands  a  century  afterward.  That  certain  of  them  may  have 
outlived  the  Roman  and  the  Vandal  periods,  until  northern  Africa 
once  more  was  conquered  by  a  Semitic  race,  and  may  then  have 
tempted  the  Saracenic  scholar  amid  the  intense  fever  of  research 
which  fired  the  schools  of  Cairwan  and  of  Fez,  is,  at  all  events,  not 
impossible.  Meanwhile  the  jejune  and  partial  accounts  known  to 
have  been  written  by  Greek  or  Roman  authors  have,  for  the  most 
part,  come  down  to  us  only  in  fragments.  Of  these  the  most  cov- 
eted document,  namely,  the  pro-Carthaginian  narrative  of  the  first 
Punic  war,  by  Philinus,  a  Greek  of  Agrigentum,  we  know  only 
from  some  criticisms  of  Polybius.  This  chronicle,  however,  and 
the  lost  books  or  fragments  of  the  other  alien  historians  who  treated 
of  the  western  Tyre,  may  yet  come  to  light,  and  complete  the  pic- 
ture, such  as  it  is,  which  the  Greek  colonists  in  Sicily  or  the  Romans 
who  had  tested  for  themselves  the  patience  of  Hamilcar,  and  felt  the 
weight  of  Hannibal's  arm,  could  form  or  chose  to  paint  of  their 
redoubtable  antagonists.  There  are  still  extant  the  text  of  three 
treaties  with  Rome,  the  log-book  of  an  adventurous  Punic  admiral, 
some  precepts  of  an  African  agriculturist,  a  speech  or  two  of  a 
vagabond  Carthaginian  in  one  of  Plautus's  plays,  a  few  inscriptions 
buried  twenty  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  lately  dis- 
lodged by  the  efforts  of  archaeologists,  and  a  few  coins  whose  numis- 
matic value  is  questionable.  These,  with  some  aqueducts  and  sub- 
structions too  massive  to  be  destroyed,  are  the  only  native  or  semi- 
native  sources  from  which  the  story  of  the  great  Phoenician  empire 
city  can  be  constructed.  The  writings  of  no  native  analyst,  orator, 
philosopher,  or  poet,  enable  us  to  know  Carthage  as  we  know  Athens 

*  Carthage  and  the  Carthaginians.    By  R.  Bosworth  Smith.    London :  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co. 


CURRENT  LITERATURE.  683 

or  Rome ;  that  is  to  say,  from  its  own  citizens.  Mr.  Bosworth 
Smith  is,  of  course,  constrained  to  eke  out  his  narrative  from  a  few 
chapters  of  reflections  by  Aristotle,  who  describes  a  state  of  things 
extinct  at  the  date  of  the  Punic  wars — from  the  late  Roman  chroni- 
clers who  saw  everything  with  Roman  eyes — and  from  a  few  anti- 
quarian remarks  of  the  Greek  historian  Polybius,  who  beheld  Car- 
thage only  at  the  moment  of  her  fall,  and  was  the  comrade  of  her 
destroyer. 

Mr.  Bosworth  Smith  concedes  that  a  universal  Carthaginian  Em- 
pire could  have  done  for  the  world,  "  as  far  as  we  can  see,"  nothing 
comparable  to  that  which  the  Roman  domination  did  for  it.  But 
perhaps  we  can  not  see  far  enough.  At  all  events,  the  author's  ad- 
mission seems  to  have  been  made  pro  formd  ;  for  we  find  it  sub- 
stantially effaced  by  a  multitude  of  counter-considerations  adduced 
in  the  course  of  the  narrative.  The  inability  of  Carthage  to  as- 
similate or  even  to  cultivate,  to  any  sensible  extent,  her  Berber 
subjects  proves  nothing  ;  for  the  race  has  shown  itself  equally 
intractable  in  Roman,  Vandal,  Arabic,  and  French  hands.  On  the 
other  side  may  be  set  some  significant  facts.  That  the  earlier 
frame  of  government  compelled  the  esteem  of  Aristotle  we  know  ; 
and  that  the  subsequent  administration  of  affairs  by  the  Council  of 
One  Hundred  was  more  wise  and  equitable  than  that  of  the  Ro- 
man Senate  seems  to  be  attested  by  the  almost  total  absence  of 
popular  insurrection,  or  of  insubordination  on  the  part  of  military 
leaders.  As  to  the  lenity  of  the  Carthaginian  rule  in  Sicily,  we 
have  the  decisive  testimony  of  Greek  subjects  who  refused  to  mi- 
grate into  the  Syracusan  territory.  Certainly  we  should  look  in 
vain  for  such  vouchers  of  just  dealing  with  Sicilians  on  the  part  of 
the  countrymen  of  Verres.  The  character  of  the  Carthaginian  policy 
in  Spain  is  demonstrated  by  its  extraordinary  success,  which  pre- 
sents the  most  suggestive  contrast  to  the  prolonged  and  bloody 
record  of  the  Roman  efforts  at  annexation.  Only  twice,  in  fact, 
has  the  unfortunate  Iberian  Peninsula  known  the  stimulating  bless- 
ings of  just  government,  and  it  owed  them  in  each  case  to  Semitic 
rulers,  the  chiefs  of  the  house  of  Barca  sharing  with  the  Ommyade 
princes  of  Cordova  the  honorable  distinction.  Perhaps  the  most 
striking  tribute  ever  extorted  from  prejudice  and  rancor  was  the 
judgment  pronounced  by  Cato  the  Censor,  who,  remarking  the  great 
public  works  which  had  survived  the  Punic  commander,  and  the 
reverence  which  kept  him  in  still  livelier  remembrance,  declared 
with  surly  emphasis  that  "  there  was  no  king  like  Hamilcar."     We 


684  TEH  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

may  add  that  the  charges  leveled  at  the  Carthaginian  character  are 
most  of  them  refuted  by  the  admissions  or  the  contradictions  of 
their  enemies  ;  and  that,  if  we  consent  to  regard  the  overwhelming 
preponderance  of  evidence,  fides  Homana,  and  not  Punic  faith,  should 
have  become  a  synonym  for  oath-breaking.  When  we  weigh  these 
fragmentary  but  pregnant  data  wrung  from  reluctant  witnesses,  we 
can  not  but  regret  that  Sallust,  who  had  access  to  the  Carthaginian 
books  preserved  by  King  Hiempsal,  could  not  forget,  or  venture  to 
brave,  Rome's  inextinguishable  prejudices.  When  the  historian  of 
the  Jugurthine  war  reaches  the  point  where  he  would  naturally  re- 
cite the  story  of  Carthage,  it  is  with  a  touch  of  sadness,  not  unmixed 
apparently  with  shame,  that  he  stays  his  pen.  "Of  Carthage," 
writes  Sallust,  "  I  say  nothing,  for  I  deem  it  better  to  speak  no  word 
about  her  than  to  say  too  little." 

ii. 
The  creation  of  a  German  nation  on  the  dual  basis  of  unity  and 
parliamentary  institutions  is  plainly  the  most  impressive  and  mo- 
mentous phenomenon  of  our  time,  but  for  its  interpretation  the  Eng- 
lish student  needed  just  such  a  work  as  Professor  Seeley  has  now 
completed.*  Any  discussion  of  the  events  which,  since  1866,  have 
aggrandized  the  house  of  Hohenzollern,  musts  needs  be  sterile,  any 
estimate  of  the  social  questions  now  perplexing  the  German  people 
must  prove  the  idlest  word-shuffling,  unless  the  last  dozen  years  are 
illumined  and  deciphered  by  the  reforms  accomplished,  the  prin- 
ciples established,  and  the  movements  begun  in  the  first  quarter  of 
this  century.  Only  by  such  a  retrospect  can  we  account  for  the 
splendid  results  of  Sadowa  and  Sedan  as  distinguished  from  the  un- 
substantial fruits  of  Leuthen  and  of  Rossbach.  Only  thus  can  we 
explain  the  prompt  acceptance  of  Prussian  hegemony,  the  irresisti- 
ble drift  toward  fusion  on  the  part  of  long-segregated  states,  and 
the  peremptory  demand  for  constitutional  guarantees  and  local-self- 
government.  To  changes  likewise  in  the  structure  and  regulation 
of  the  Prussian  commonwealth  introduced  more  than  sixty  years 
ago  we  must  look  for  the  secret  of  the  conditions  under  which, 
strangely  enough,  not  France  but  Germany  has  become  the  classic 
ground  of  Socialism.  In  a  word,  German  politics  of  our  day  can 
have  no  significance  to  him  who  knows  little  or  nothing  of  German 
politics  in  the  hour  of  the  national  uprising.  Without  Stein,  Bis- 
marck is  inexplicable. 

*  Life  and  Times  of  Stein,  by  J.  R.  Seeley.    Boston :  Roberts  Brothers. 


CURRENT  LITERATURE.  685 

The  Germans  are  accustomed  to  colossal  accumulations  of  data 
strung  together  on  the  thread  of  an  eventful  life — indeed,  the  volu- 
minous work  nominally  devoted  to  Baron  Stein  by  Pertz  is  a  notable 
instance.  But,  with  the  exception  of  Masson's  "  Life  of  Milton,"  we 
know  of  no  English  biography  comparable  with  Professor  Seeley's 
book  for  comprehensiveness  of  design  and  abundance  of  material. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  memoir  of  the  Prussian  statesman  as  a  history 
of  Germany  throughout  the  turbulent  and  pregnant  years  from 
1806  to  1822.  Indeed,  the  requirements  of  his  theme  compel  the 
writer  to  keep  in  view  the  political  situation  of  the  whole  of  Europe 
at  that  epoch,  seeing  that  the  fortunes  of  the  Napoleonic  system 
turned  on  Germany  as  on  a  pivot,  while  the  subsequent  settlement 
of  that  country  was  the  superlative  concern  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna.  No  one  who  has  felt  the  want  of  a  sufficiently  wide  and 
adequate  treatment  of  that  critical  era  in  a  single  English  book 
will  regret  the  extensive  scope  given  to  the  present  undertaking. 

Professor  Seeley  is  disposed  to  set  Stein  on  a  higher  plane  of 
greatness  than  that  on  which  the  judgment  of  his  contemporaries 
placed  him  ;  but  probably  the  majority  of  German  Liberals,  at  the 
present  day,  would  accept  the  writer's  estimate.  Of  course,  no  in- 
dividual brain  can  be  supposed  to  have  supplied  the  whole  impulse, 
much  less  the  whole  momentum,  of  any  great  popular  upheaval, 
but  it  seems  clear  that  Stein  stood  in  a  much  more  generative  and 
dynamic  relation  toward  the  reconstructive  nisus  of  Germany  than 
did  any  single  leader  of  the  States-General  or  the  Convention 
toward  the  French  Revolution.  And  here  we  may  point  out  some 
of  the  capital  marks  of  likeness,  and  equally  decisive  marks  of  dif- 
ference, between  Stein's  reforms  and  the  changes  effected  by  the 
first  republic  in  the  political  and  social  fabric  of  France.  In  the 
field  of  legislative  melioration  there  is  a  complete  parallel  up  to  a 
certain  point.  By  the  abolition  of  serfdom  and  the  obliteration  of 
all  hard  and  fast  lines  of  status,  Stein  bestowed  a  healthy  power  of 
circulation  and  growth  upon  the  political  organism.  A  conclusive 
proof  of  the  new  tendencies  is  the  gradual  partition  of  the  land 
among  peasant  proprietors,  a  process  which  has  been  carried  to  con- 
siderable lengths  in  Germany,  though  not  yet  so  far  as  in  France. 
That  he  strenuously  favored  responsible  government  for  the  whole 
Confederation  is  well  known,  as  also  that  he  considered  it  less 
essential  in  the  separate  affairs  of  Prussia.  Within  certain  limits 
he  followed  the  French  Convention  in  its  perilous  extension  of  cen- 
tralization theories,  and  he  was  more  amply  justified  by  his  situa- 


686  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

tion,  dealing  as  he  did  with  a  loose  congeries  of  provinces  owning 
no  common  tie  except  the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  same  dynasty. 
It  is,  however,  the  specific  merit  of  his  system  that  he  introduced 
a  powerful  corrective  to  centripetal  forces  by  the  creation  of  mu- 
nicipal franchises  on  a  great  scale.  Thus,  at  the  very  time  when 
the  habit  and  even  the  conception  of  local  self-government  seemed 
to  be  vanishing  in  France,  it  was  impregnably  rooted  in  north 
Germany.  Therefore  it  is.  that  Stein's  reforms,  like  the  evolution 
of  English  liberties,  having  begun  at  the  bottom,  were  builded  on 
broad  and  sure  foundations  ;  while  in  France  the  work  of  recon- 
struction, beginning  at  the  top,  was  and  is  in  constant  danger  of 
disturbance  and  overthrow. 

As  we  have  said,  Stein's  fame  was  to  be  chiefly  posthumous. 
When  he  died  in  1831,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  there  was  no 
such  universal  sense  of  bereavement  among  his  fellow  countrymen 
as  might  have  been  looked  for  at  the  departure  of  one  who  should 
be  called  the  founder  of  the  modern  German  nation.  The  great 
men  of  the  Fatherland  were  still  poets  and  philosophers,  or  else 
they  were  kings.  It  had  been  a  rare,  exceptional  case  when  Stein 
himself,  in  1808,  had  for  a  moment  excited  popular  enthusiasm ; 
otherwise  no  one  had  ever  heard  of  a  German  statesman  who  was 
more  than  a  mere  official,  or  whose  death  could  much  concern  the 
general  weal.  It  was  reserved  for  Bismarck  to  change  this,  and 
to  reflect  a  part  of  his  own  glory  on  the  sterling  worth  of  his  pre- 
cursor. 

in. 

The  volumes  of  secret  correspondence  published  by  the  Due  de 
Broglie,*  if  they  did  not  actually  prompt,  go  far  to  justify  the  view 
taken  of  Louis  XV.,  by  Victor  Hugo  in  his  "Pitie  Supreme."  The 
name  of  the  monarch  credited  with  the  aphorism,  Apr&s  moi  le 
dklage,  was  even  more  closely  identified,  in  common  repute,  with 
weakness  than  with  vice,  and  his  extravagant  sensuality  has  been 
deemed  rather  the  index  and  complement  than  the  cause  of  his 
political  ineptitude.  The  testimony  to  his  natural  gifts  and  the 
relatively  effective  training  which  he  was  said  to  have  received 
seemed  to  be  discredited  by  the  irreconcilable  facts  of  his  later  life, 
and  the  seemingly  complete  surrender  of  oversight  and  authority 
in  affairs  of  state  to  the  adroit  purveyors  for  his  brutal  appetites. 
It  is  now  known,  however,  and  we  owe  the  information  in  a  distinct^ 
conclusive  form  to  the  Due  de  Broglie,  that  the  son  of  the  Due  de 
Le  Secret  du  Roi,  par  le  Due  de  Broglie.    Paris  :  Calmaiin-Le>y/ 


CURRENT  LITERATURE.  687 

Bourgogne  discovered  to  the  last  some  traces  in  his  plans  and 
intentions  of  his  high-minded  father,  that  for  twenty  years  there 
was  no  move  on  the  diplomatic  chess-board,  no  change  in  the  map 
of  Europe,  which  was  not  scanned,  pondered,  and  discussed  in  the 
King's  private  cabinet  by  men  unknown,  or  at  all  events  unf  eared,  by 
the  reigning  favorites  and  responsible  ministers,  yet  commanding 
the  King's  confidence  in  not  infrequent  moments  of  good  impulse 
and  generous  aspiration.  It  is,  indeed,  a  curious  fact  that  what 
the  unstable  sovereign  should  so  long  have  taken  pains  to  mask 
from  the  world  was  the  best  side  of  his  character.  While  he  aban- 
doned the  public  exercise  of  power  to  courtiers  and  concubines,  he 
seems  to  have  continually  cherished  an  inchoate  purpose  of  self- 
government,  and  to  have  sought  in  secret  the  frank  and  austere 
counsels  of  able  and  honest  men.  In  their  society  and  under  the 
seal  of  communications  in  cipher  the  comrade  of  the  Du  Barry,  and 
the  patron  of  the  Pare  aux  Cerfs,  struggled  with  a  pitiable  persist- 
ence to  keep  alive  the  sentiment  of  personal  dignity,  and  a  linger- 
ing regard  for  the  public  weal.  Thus  it  is  that  the  Due  de  Broglie's 
book  derives  a  singular  interest  from  the  contrast  between  the  giddy 
demonstrations  of  license  and  frivolity  on  the  public  stage  and  the 
fitful  whispers  of  good  sense,  probity,  and  patriotic  ardor  that  are 
breathed  behind  the  scenes.  By  a  strange  paradox  the  record  of 
intrigue  and  indecency,  all  the  piquant  details  of  scandal  circulated 
in  the  "  (Eil  de  Bceuf  "  are  marshaled  in  the  foreground  of  history, 
on  the  surface  of  the  King's  life,  whereas  the  mysterious  transactions 
and  clandestine  machinations  laid  bare  in  his  secret  papers  disclose 
capabilities,  designs,  and  sympathies  of  unsuspected  scope  and  dig- 
nity. 

The  documents  now  brought  forward  and  deciphered  by  the 
Due  de  Broglie  are  substantially  new,  although  fragments  had  been 
printed,  and  although  the  existence  of  the  correspondence  was  sus- 
pected during  the  lifetime  of  the  monarch  interested.  But  the 
object  of  the  mysterious  business,  the  nature  of  the  King's  secret, 
with  which  these  papers  were  concerned,  seems  to  have  been  quite 
unknown  to  contemporary  historians,  nor  were  they  always  able  to 
identify  the  confidants  and  instruments  of  his  clandestine  projects. 
It  is  sufficiently  attested,  however,  by  these  volumes  that  the  most 
trusted  and  efficient  among  the  King's  unavowed  agents  was  the 
Comte  de  Broglie,  great-uncle  of  the  compiler,  and  brother  of  that 
Marechal  de  Broglie  who  will  be  remembered  as  the  victor  over  the 
Prussians  in  the  battle  of  Berghen.     His  handwriting  appears  in 


688  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

many  of  the  papers  now  unearthed  from  the  archives  of  the  Ministry 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  many  of  the  data  disclosed  in  this  corre- 
spondence are  verified,  supplemented,  or  interpreted  by  his  private 
letters.  The  manner,  by  the  way,  in  which  the  bulk  of  these  in- 
teresting documents  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Government  is 
well  worth  mention.  They  seem  to  have  been  minutes  of  inter- 
views and  instructions  taken  down  by  the  Comte  de  Broglie  as 
vouchers  for  his  authority,  perhaps  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
King,  and  confided  to  some  faithless  depositary,  who  sold  them 
after  the  Comte's  death,  and  when  the  emigration  had  scattered  his 
whole  family.  By  1810  they  had  come  into  the  possession  of  a 
well-known  antiquarian,  one  Giraud  Soulavie,  who  offered  them  to 
Napoleon  I.,  and  they  were  subsequently  purchased  of  his  heirs 
for  four  thousand  dollars.  The  authenticity  of  the  papers  seemed 
to  be  well  established,  but  no  satisfactory  explanations  could  be 
obtained  at  the  time  from  Soulavie  touching  the  source  of  his 
acquisition. 

Heretofore,  the  worst  taint  on  the  memory  of  Louis  XV.,  from 
a  political  point  of  view,  has  been  the  indifference  of  France  to- 
ward the  dismemberment  of  Poland.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the 
French  sovereign  had  neither  the  perspicacity  to  discern  the  plot 
while  it  was  preparing,  nor  the  courage  to  prevent  its  execution,  and 
the  editor  of  these  volumes  justly  remarks  that  the  abandonment  of 
an  ancient  ally  to  flagitious  mutilation  betrayed  an  amount  of  folly 
and  poltroonery  which  a  spirited  and  sagacious  nation  has  not  yet 
learned  to  forgive.  Of  the  two  reproaches  leveled  at  the  French 
ruler,  it  is  clear  from  these  pages  that  only  one  is  fairly  chargeable 
upon  him,  though  its  elimination  doubtless  aggravates  the  other. 
The  misfortunes  of  Poland  were  no  surprise  to  Louis  XV.  Con- 
trariwise, that  unhappy  country  formed  the  principal  and  for  some 
years  almost  the  sole  object  of  his  industrious  though  sterile  diplo- 
macy. It  seems  to  have  long  been  the  mission  of  the  secret  agents 
to  arrange  for  the  accession  of  a  French  prince  to  the  Polish  throne, 
with  the  supplemental  purpose  of  bestowing  the  protection  of 
France.  Regarded  in  this  light,  the  clandestine  machinations  here 
disclosed  become  a  species  of  monument  to  the  upright  intentions  at 
least  of  Louis  XV.,  while  at  the  same  time  they  attest  the  incurable 
infirmity  of  his  character.  He  came,  we  must  bear  in  mind,  in  col- 
lision with  the  most  astute  and  dexterous  statesman  of  his  century. 
Frederick  II.  had  devised  the  partition  of  Poland  as  a  means  of 
reconciling  and  employing  conflicting  ambitions,  and  of  converting 


CURRENT  LITERATURE. 

three  rivals  into  three  accomplices.  We  may  add  that  another 
mysterious  phenomenon  in  eighteenth-century  politics,  the  Franco- 
Austrian  alliance,  which  is  commonly  referred  to  the  spite  of  Ma- 
dame de  Pompadour  and  the  weakness  of  Louis  XV.,  is  quite  other- 
wise accounted  for  by  a  recent  work  of  high  authority.  We  refer 
to  the  revelations  contained  in  the  "  Memoires  et  Lettres  du  Car- 
dinal de  Bernis,"  whose  publication  lately  followed  that  of  the  Due 
de  Broglie's  book.  It  appears  that  it  was  Frederick  II.,  and  not  the 
French  Ministry,  who  took  the  initiative  in  the  rupture  between 
France  and  Prussia,  and  who  was  really  responsible  for  the  Seven 
Years'  war.  Returning  to  the  volumes  under  review,  we  may  state 
that  the  mass  of  materials  is  admirably  assorted  and  disposed,  and 
happily  illumined  with  interjected  note  and  comment.  We  need 
not  say  that  the  style  is  marked  by  the  lucidity  of  exposition  and 
felicity  of  epithet  that  justified  the  author's  admission  to  the  Aca- 
demie  Francaise,  and  which  we  might  reasonably  expect  would 
prove  hereditary  gifts  in  a  grandson  of  Madame  de  Stael. 

IV'  Bancroft  Lif>r 

If  any  man  doubt  whether  Englishmen  of  the  present  genera- 
tion are  less  insular,  if  not  wiser,  than  were  their  fathers,  let  him 
read  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review  "  for  April,  1806,  the  criticism  on 
"  Nathan  der  Weise."  That  masterpiece  is  there  pronounced  "  as 
genuine  sourkraut  as  ever  perfumed  a  feast  in  Westphalia."  From 
such  grotesque  indifference  toward  a  regnant  name  in  German  let- 
ters we  can  not  but  recognize  an  impressive  advance  in  the  discrim- 
inative and  exhaustive  survey  of  the  man  and  of  his  works  pre- 
sented in  Mr.  Sime's  "  Life  of  Lessing."  *  In  the  interval,  however, 
of  three  quarters  of  a  century,  the  appreciation  of  that  writer  in 
Germany  itself  has  been  signally  widened  and  intensified.  During 
his  lifetime  Voltaire  altogether  eclipsed  him,  and,  for  a  season  after 
his  death,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Kant,  and  Fichte  overshadowed  his  kin- 
dling fame.  Even  the  perfunctory  labors  which  absorbed  much  of 
his  time  and  energies  were  ill  paid.  At  a  date  when  contempo- 
rary quill-drivers  were  earning  handsome  sums  in  London  and 
Paris,  he  sought  in  vain  to  win  the  means  of  subsistence  from 
hack-work  in  literature.  Well  known  he  was,  but  his  notoriety 
was  due,  perhaps,  quite  as  much  to  acrimonious  controversies  as  to 
the  eager,  unquestioning  homage  of  competent  opinion.  "Minna 
von  Barnhelm,"  for  example,  which  Lessing's  countrymen  still  wit- 
*  Lessing,  by  James  Sime.    Boston :  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co. 


690  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

ness  with  so  much  pleasure,  was  regarded  by  Goethe  as  a  meteor 
whose  brilliance  would  soon  fade.  So  late,  too,  as  1830  Goethe 
wrote  of  "Emilia  Galotti,"  which  has  been  translated  into  half  a 
dozen  languages,  and  still  keeps  the  boards,  that  the  only  respect 
due  to  it  was  "that  belonging  to  a  mummy  which  may  give  evidence 
as  to  the  high  dignity  of  the  dead."  Kant,  who  was  by  five  years 
the  senior  of  Lessing,  and  who  became  a  sort  of  supreme  arbiter  in 
aesthetic  science,  seems  never  to  have  even  read  the  "Laokoon," 
whose  direct  or  mediate  influence  on  European  thought  has  certainly 
been  noteworthy.  And  even  "  Nathan  der  Weise,"  the  ripest  fruit 
of  the  author's  genius,  and  now  an  unchallenged  gem  of  the  Ger- 
man theatre,  could  not  be  produced  until  two  years  after  Lessing's 
death,  and  even  then  was  played  to  an  empty  house  on  the  third 
night.  Of  all  his  compositions,  indeed,  the  notices  of  plays  pre- 
pared for  a  Hamburg  newspaper  under  the  name  of  "Hanibur- 
gische  Dramaturgie  "  attracted  the  promptest  and  widest  atten- 
tion. It  is  just  this  collection  of  jottings,  curiously  enough,  which 
at  the  present  day  is  least  read  out  of  Germany,  and  the  credulous 
student  of  English  and  American  journals  would  be  surprised  to 
learn  how  many  reputations  have  been  made  by  dramatic  critics 
through  the  patient  conning  and  judicious  culling  of  Lessing's  hints 
and  formulas. 

Upon  that  considerable  class  of  English  readers  who  would  fain 
know  something  about  Lessing,  and  ponder  at  first  hand  his  ger- 
minal suggestions,  but  who  at  the  same  time  lack  the  leisure  or  the 
patience  to  learn  German,  Mr.  Sime  has  conferred  a  veritable  boon. 
Of  all  the  more  admirable  and  fruitful  achievements  of  his  author 
he  exhibits  the  substantive  contents,  the  vital  core  of  original  and 
characteristic  thought,  in  a  condensed  and  denuded,  but  perspicu- 
ous and  accurate  form.  The  summaries,  for  instance,  of  the 
"  Laokoon  "  and  the  "  Hamburgische  Dramaturgie  "  are  particularly 
lucid  and  complete.  As  regards  Lessing's  plays,  the  biographer 
could,  of  course,  offer  nothing  more  than  an  analysis  of  the  plot, 
coupled  with  some  indications  of  the  dramatist's  felicity  in  por- 
traiture, and  a  reference  to  the  scope  and  purpose  of  the  piece. 
From  the  other  works — philosophical,  polemical,  and  occasional — 
so  much  has  been  drawn  as  seemed  requisite  to  interpret  the  writ- 
er's personality  and  his  precise  attitude  toward  the  intellectual 
movement  of  his  country  and  his  time.  Mr.  Sime  has  worked  on 
the  sound  principle  pf  allowing  his  subject  to  expound  himself,  and 
so  far  as  possible  in  his  own  words.     No  doubt,  such  a  method  has 


CURRENT  LITERATURE.  691 

constrained  him  to  expand  his  book  to  somewhat  unusual  propor- 
tions, owing  to  the  extraordinary  range  of  Lessing's  acquisitions 
and  inquiries.  The  result  is  not  so  much  a  biography  as  an  endur- 
ing monument  of  critical  exposition.  These  volumes  constitute  the 
first  adequate  tribute  paid  by  an  English  student  to  one  of  the  most 
fecund,  vigorous,  and  unconventional  thinkers  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Lessing's  hold,  indeed,  upon  posterity  can  hardly  fail  to 
prove  more  tenacious  than  Voltaire's,  for  in  the  former  the  revolu- 
tionary instinct  was  united  with  the  constructive  faculty.  These 
tendencies,  so  seldom  found  in  association,  had  at  their  command 
an  intellect  of  splendid  strength  and  flexibility — an  instrument, 
moreover,  that  obeyed  the  impulse  of  the  two  noblest  passions,  a 
love  of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and  an  undying  love  of  man. 

v. 

"When  it  was  remarked  of  an  accomplished  Bostonian  that  he 
gave  you  the  impression  of  a  sick  Englishman,  the  key-note  was 
struck  of  a  movement  which  has  already  borne  wholesome  fruit  in 
literature,  and  is  not  unlikely  to  exert  a  bracing  influence  on  the 
national  character.  The  criticism,  by  the  way,  was  by  no  means 
leveled  at  the  local  affectations  of  a  particular  community  :  it  was 
an  argument  a  fortiori  ;  it  recognized  in  the  society  of  a  given  city 
more  successful  adepts  in  imitative  efforts  practiced  elsewhere  with 
considerable  assiduity  ;  and  the  rejoinder  was  obvious  that  it  is  better, 
as  regards  robustness,  genuineness,  and  elevation  of  type  to  resemble 
an  invalid  Englishman  than,  let  us  say,  a  moribund  Gaul  or  a  con- 
sumptive Italian.  Of  late,  Mr.  Howells  and  Mr.  James  have  under- 
taken to  interpret  the  profound  concern  and  secret  uneasiness  of 
American  society  touching  the  judgment  of  foreign  observers  ;  to 
portray  its  studious  approximation  toward  the  English  diction  and 
point  of  view,  and  to  indicate  the  shortcomings  in  the  most  pains- 
taking reproduction.  So  far  as  their  transcripts  of  life  stopped 
short  with  the  exposure  of  deficiencies  and  the  dissipation  of  illu- 
sions, they  were  fraught  with  the  delightful  pungency  but  also  with 
the  sterility  of  satire.  They  pointed  out  in  an  effective  and  cap- 
tivating way  the  more  or  less  diverting  failures  to  solve  a  certain 
problem,  but  they  did  not  squarely  pose  the  fundamental  query, 
whether  the  problem,  after  all,  is  worth  solution.  It  is  because  Mr. 
Howells  has  gone  much  further  in  his  latest  work — because  he  has 
not  only  disclosed  the  inevitable  miscarriage  of  t^e  Anglicizing  aim, 
but  has  laid  bare  the  mental  obliquity  of  such  a  purpose,  as  well 


692  THE  NOBTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

as  the  species  of  moral  torpidity  entailed  by  it — that  we  are  led  to 
pronounce  "  The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook  "  *  the  most  virile,  healthful 
and  estimable  achievement  in  recent  American  fiction. 

It  is  the  scope  and  lesson  of  Mr.  Howells's  new  novel  to  which 
we  would  especially  direct  attention.  It  would  be  superfluous  to 
dwell  on  the  artistic  gifts  which  have  been  attested  and  developed  by 
successive  experiments,  on  the  power  of  sharp  characterization  and 
the  constructive  skill  too  seldom  found  united  in  English  novels, 
or  on  the  Protean  forms  of  a  humor  that  knows  no  sting,  but  is 
now  condensed  into  a  grateful,  subacid  irony,  now  sublimated  to  a 
mild  aroma.  All  these  are  the  recognized  professional  qualifica- 
tions, so  to  speak,  of  the  advocate  who  has  consented  to  hold  a 
brief  in  the  cause  of  American  ideals,  manners,  and  diction,  versus 
English  formulas  and  standards.  But  we  ought  to  glance  at  the 
artist's  thorough  mastery  of  the  subject-matter — at  his  exhaustive 
and  wellnigh  irreproachable  exhibition  of  the  models  whose  au- 
thority he  disputes.  If  any  American  can  reproduce  the  English 
speech  in  precise  conformity  to  the  idiom  sanctioned  by  the  best 
London  society,  it  would  seem  to  be  Mr.  Howells.  This  he  had 
already  demonstrated,  and  he  offers  cumulative  proof  in  the  book 
before  us.  As  regards  the  main  texture  of  the  story,  where  the 
author  speaks  in  his  own  person  or  through  the  mouths  of  those 
whom  he  means  to  be  authentic  exponents  of  right  colloquial  use, 
we  can  note  but  three  insignificant  marks  of  inadvertence.  Once, 
we  light  on  the  word  "  stylishness,"  employed  as  an  equivalent 
to  the  last  century  term  "  modishness,"  for  which  we  believe  a 
paraphrase  is  now  employed  in  Belgravia.  So,  too,  the  verb  "  to 
keep,"  which,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  is  always  transitive  or  reflex- 
ive, is  used  in  accordance  with  a  New  England  idiom  in  such  a 
phrase  as  "  I  can  not  keep  from  doing  it."  To  these  trivial  over- 
sights may  be  added  the  occasional  employment  of  "  won't "  for  the 
third  person  singular  of  the  future  indicative  in  the  negative  conjuga- 
tion. Against  these  microscopic  slips  maybe  set  the  most  complete 
and  curious  catalogue  of  American  solecisms  and  archaisms  that  has 
ever  in  our  recollection  been  collected  in  a  work  of  fiction.  The  pre- 
texts and  devices,  by  means  of  which  the  writer  contrives  to  float 
these  curiosities  of  our  Yankee  tongue  on  the  swift  movement  of  his 
story,  are  most  dexterous  and  satisfactory.     With  these  revelations 

*  The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook.  By  W.  D.  Howells.  Boston :  Houghton,  Osgood 
&Co. 


CURRENT  LITERATURE.  693 

are  adroitly  interwoven  suggestions  of  all  those  English  words  and 
turns  of  phrase  most  calculated  to  startle  and  depress  the  modest 
American  whose  energies  are  given  to  the  secret  and  patient  meliora- 
tion of  his  native  speech.  To  this  end  the  author  introduces  two 
distinct  types  of  the  semi- Anglicized  Bostonian.  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  the  young  man  who,  as  yet  unenlightened  by  foreign  travel, 
essays  to  make  good  his  loss  by  minute  research,  painstaking  syn- 
thesis, and  cautious  divination — who  ransacks  English  novels,  note- 
book and  pencil  in  hand,  and  drinks  with  hungry  ear  the  colloquial 
droppings  of  British  tourists.  Ascending  one  step  in  the  scale  of 
oral  accomplishment,  we  have  the  traveled  Bostonian  who  has  man- 
aged not  only  to  remodel  in  a  large  measure  his  vocabulary,  but  has 
even  superadded  some  tricks  of  intonation — exercising,  moreover, 
these  acquisitions  with  a  facility  which  might  seem  second  nature 
but  for  a  strong  infusion  of  self-complacency.  When,  beside  these 
types  of  successive  degrees  in  approximation  is  placed  the  genuine 
thing  itself — namely,  a  well-born  Englishman,  possessed  too  of  a  ma- 
nia for  exploring  the  mysteries  of  the  American  language  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  philologist — we  can  not  but  acknowledge  the 
perfection  of  Mr.  Howells's  machinery  for  evolving  the  points  of 
likeness  and  difference  in  the  British  original  and  its  Boston  counter- 
part. 

After  this  demonstration  of  his  perfect  right  to  pronounce  judg- 
ment in  the  premises,  Mr.  Howells  silently  inculcates  through  the 
action  of  this  story  and  by  the  eloquence  of  example  his  conviction 
that  the  imitative  attitude  is  essentially  abortive  and  inane.  To 
this  end  he  is  careful  riot  to  choose  for  his  heroine  a  daintily-nur- 
tured and  closely-environed  girl  like  Miss  Bessie  Alden,  or  even  an 
affluent  but  ill-schooled  and  frivolous  young  person  whose  trans- 
gressions after  all  might  be  confined  to  occasional  walks  with  mas- 
culine companions  in  the  public  thoroughfares  of  European  cities. 
He  has  boldly  grappled  with  the  most  awkward  and  unpromising 
materials  ;  he  has  selected  a  young  woman  whose  social  status  may 
be  precisely  though  crudely  defined  by  the  epithet  "a  Yankee 
schoolmarm,"  and  he  has  placed  her,  not  in  a  foreign  town  with  her 
kinfolk  within  call,  but  on  shipboard — not  only  unchaperoned,  but 
utterly  unprotected,  without  a  relative  on  board  or  another  person 
of  her  own  sex  in  the  ship's  company.  Among  her  fellow  passen- 
gers are  two  more  or  less  Europeanized  Bostonians,  and  a  third 
quite  obnoxious  individual,  properly  described  in  the  British  dialect 
as  an  acutely  accented  specimen  of  the  genus  "Cad."  Such  are 
vol.  cxxvni. — no.  271.  45 


694  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

the  elements  of  the  situation  presented  in  the  cabin  of  the  Aroos- 
took ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  objectionable  features  of 
our  indigenous  social  code  are  here  exhibited  in  an  intensely  aggra- 
vated f orm,.  In  a  word,  this  is  an  extreme  case ;  and,  if  Mr.  How- 
ells  has  succeeded  in  subverting  the  prejudice  provoked  in  some  of 
her  fellow  passengers  by  the  unconventional  isolation  and  colloquial 
deficiencies  of  Miss  Lydia  Blood,  he  will  have  gone  far  to  stem  the 
Anglicizing  mania.  He  will  have  done  much  to  rehabilitate  the 
robust,  unsuspicious  simplicity  of  our  native  manners,  and  to  pro- 
mote that  decisive  act  of  social  autonomy  suggested  by  the  late  Mr. 
Motley,  namely,  the  affirmation  of  a  distinct  American  language, 
and  the  adoption  of  independent  canons  of  speech. 

Mayo  W.  Hazeltine. 


x.% 
WILL  ENGLAND  RETURN  TO  PROTECTION? 


132  Piccadilly,  London,  April  25, 1879. 

My  dear  Sir  :  I  have  no  difficulty  in  replying  to  your  letter  of 
the  31st  ult. 

I  do  not  think  there  is  any  chance  of  a  return  in  this  country  to 
the  doctrine  of  Protection.  We  export  everything  but  agricultural 
produce  ;  to  protect  our  manufactures  is  manifestly  impossible  ; 
from  another  cause,  the  protection  of  our  land  produce  is  not  more 
possible.  Half  our  population  exists  on  imported  food ;  to  limit 
this  import  by  customs  duties,  in  order  to  raise  the  price  of  home- 
grown food,  is  a  proposition  that  can  not  be  entertained  for  a  mo- 
ment. Such  a  scheme  offered  to  Parliament  and  the  country  would 
destroy  any  Government  and  any  party. 

We  are  passing  through  a  time  of  commercial  depression ;  its 
causes  are  apparent  to  those  who  examine  and  consider  the  facts  of 
recent  past  years.  But,  in  times  of  trouble,  ignorant  men  seize  upon 
unlikely  and  impossible  propositions  and  schemes  for  relief.  There 
is  no  special  medicine  for  this  malady.  Time,  patience,  the  work- 
ing of  natural  laws,  the  avoidance  and  cessation  of  the  excitement 
and  half  madness  of  the  past,  and  a  general  economy,  will  bring 
about  a  cure,  not  without  some  or  much  suffering,  but  without 
failure. 

We  adopted  free  trade  in  the  year  1846.  But  our  land-owners 
and  farmers,  and  multitudes  of  our  people,  did  not  comprehend  the 
principles  we  taught,  and  now  a  new  generation  is  on  the  stage,  ill- 
acquainted  even  with  the  facts  of  forty  years  ago.  There  has  been 
no  great  distress  since  our  Corn  Law  was  abolished ;  and  now,  when 
trouble  has  come  for  a  time,  some  of  the  sufferers,  and  some  of  the 
quack  doctors  who  are  always  ready  to  prescribe  for  the  public,  cry 
out  for  protection,  as  if  we  had  never  tried  it  before,  and  as  if  it 
had  been  found  a  specific  in  other  countries. 


696  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

There  is  no  danger  of  our  going  back  to  protection.  The  pres- 
ent trouble  will  pass  away.  It  has  been  aggravated  by  the  evil 
policy  of  our  Government,  and  that  also  will  pass  away  ;  and  the 
simpletons jvho  are  looking  for  relief  to  an  exploded  doctrine  and 
practice  will  relapse  into  that  silence  and  obscurity  which  become 
them. 

It  is  a  grief  to  me  that  your  people  do  not  yet  see  their  way  to 
a  more  moderate  tariff.  They  are  doing  wonders,  unequaled  in  the 
world's  history,  in  paying  off  your  national  debt.  A  more  moder- 
ate tariff,  I  should  think,  would  give  you  a  better  revenue,  and  by 
degrees  you  might  approach  a  more  civilized  system.  What  can 
be  more  strange  than  for  your  great  free  country  to  build  barriers 
against  that  commerce  which  is  everywhere  the  handmaid  of  free- 
dom and  of  civilization  ? 

I  should  despair  of  the  prospects  of  mankind  if  I  did  not  be- 
lieve that  before  long  the  intelligence  of  your  people  would  revolt 
against  the  barbarism  of  your  tariff.  It  seems  now  your  one  great 
humiliation  ;  the  world  looks  to  you  for  example  in  all  forms  of 
freedom.     As  to  commerce,  the  great  civilizer,  shall  it  look  in  vain  ? 

Believe  me  very  sincerely  yours, 

John  Bright. 
A.  TnoENDiKE  Rice,  Esq.,  New   York. 


The  above  letter,  as  will  be  seen,  was  written  in  reply  to  one 
from  the  editor  of  the  "  Review"  asking  Mr.  Bright's  opinion  as  to 
the  nature  and  extent  of  the  alleged  movement  in  England  looking 
to  a  readoption  of  the  protective  system.  Mr.  Bright  having  kind- 
ly volunteered  his  permission,  we  take  great  pleasure  in  giving  this 
interesting  communication  to  the  public. — Editor. 


PUBLICATIONS  KECEIYED. 

Deutsche  Geschichte  im  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert.  Von  Heinrich  von 
Treitsche.  Erster  Theil.  Bis  zum  zweiten  Tariser  Frieden.  Leipzig:  Ver- 
lag  von  S.  Hirzel.     8vo,  pp.  790. 

Journal  of  a  Tour  in  Marocco  and  the  Great  Atlas.  By  Joseph  Dalton 
Hooker,  K.  C.  S.  I.,  C.  B.,  and  John  Ball,  F.  R.  S.,  M.  R.  I.  A.  With  an 
Appendix,  including  a  Sketch  of  the  Geology  of  Marocco.  By  George  Maw, 
F.  L.  S.,  F.  G.  S.     London :  Macmillan  &  Co.     8vo,  pp.  499. 

Wanderings  in  Patagonia,  or  Life  among  the  Ostrich-Hunters.  By  Ju- 
lius Beerbohm.     New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.     16mo,  pp.  294. 

A  History  of  the  Mass  and  its  Ceremonies  in  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Church.  By  Rev.  John  O'Brien,  A.  M.  New  York :  The  Catholic  Publica- 
tion Society.     12mo,  pp.  414. 

HaecheVs  Genesis  of  Man  ;  or,  History  of  the  Development  of  the  Human 
Race  ;  being  a  Review  of  his  Anthropogenic,  and  embracing  a  Summary  Expo- 
sition of  his  Views  and  of  those  of  the  Advanced  German  School  of  Science.  By 
Lester  F.  Ward,  A.  M.    Philadelphia :  Edward  Stern  &  Co.     8vo,  pp.  64. 

VAssommoir:  A  Novel.  By  Emtle  Zola.  Translated  from  the  French 
by  John  Stirling.  Philadelphia :  T.  B.  Peterson  &  Brothers.  16mo,  pp. 
380. 

An  Accomplished  Gentleman.  By  Julian  Sturgis.  New  York :  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.    24mo,  pp.  258. 

Ruslcin  on  Painting.  With  a  Biographical  SJcetch.  New  York  :  D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.     24mo,  pp.  210. 

The  Ages  before  Moses :  A  Series  of  Lectures  on  the  Boole  of  Genesis.  By 
James  Monro  Gibson,  T>.  D.  New  York :  Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Co. 
12mo,  pp.  258. 

Health  of  John  Bull,  Esq.  By  George  Langlands,  F.  R.  C.  P.  E.  H. 
Dundee :  Printed  by  James  P.  Mathew  &  Co.     12mo,  pp.  47. 

Falconberg.  By  Hjalmar  II.  Boyeson.  New  York :  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.     12mo,  pp.  287. 

Gleanings  of  Past  Years,  1843-'78,  1851-'77.  By  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E. 
Gladstone,  M.  P.  Vol.  III.,  Historical  and  Speculative :  Vol.  IV.,  Foreign. 
New  York :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  ;  16mo,  pp.  273,  365. 

The  Disturbed  Condition  of  the  Country :  its  Cause  and  the  Remedy.  In 
Three  Parts.  By  James  W.  Green.  Washington,  D.  C. :  W.  H.  Moore, 
Printer,     8vo,  pp.  52. 


698  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

Progressive  Japan :  A  Study  of  the  Political  and  Social  Needs  of  the  Em 
j>ire.  By  Genebal  le  Gendbe.  San  Francisco :  A.  L.  Bancroft  &  Co.  8vo, 
pp.  370. 

Willoughby.  By  Edwaed  F.  Haywaed.  Boston  :  W.  B.  Clarke.  12mo 
pp.  130. 

The  New  Tendencies  of  Political  Economy.  By  Emile  de  Laveleye 
New  York  :  Office  of  the  "  Banker's  Magazine  and  Statistical  Register."  8vo 
pp.  27. 

Notes  by  a  Naturalist  on  the  Challenger,  being  an  Account  of  Various  Ob 
servations  made  during  the  Voyage  of  H.  M.  S.  Challenger  round  the  World 
in  the  Tears  1872-1876,  under  the  Commands  of  Captain  Sir  G.  S.  Nares 
R.  N,  K.  C.  B.,  F.  R.  S.,  and  Captain  F.  T  Thompson,  R.  N.  By  H.  N, 
Moseley,  M.  A.,  F.  R.  S.     London :  Macmillan  &  Co.     8vo,  pp.  620. 

An  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language,  arranged  on  an 
Historical  Basis.  By  the  Rev.  Walteb  W.  Skeat,  M.  A.  Part  I.,  A — Dor. 
Oxford  :  At  the  Clarendon  Press*    Royal  8vo,  pp.  176. 

Renaissance  in  Italy.  The  Fine  Arts.  By  John  Addington  Symonds. 
New  York :  Henry  Holt  &  Co.     8vo,  pp.  550. 

The  Art  of  Figure- Drawing,  containing  Practical  Instructions  for  a  Course 
of  Study  in  this  Branch  of  Art.  By  Chaeles  H.  Weigall.  Edited  by  Susan 
N.  Caetee.     New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.     16mo,  pp.  53. 

Thoughts  on  the  Religious  Life.  By  Joseph  Alden,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 
With  an  Introduction  by  William  Cullen  Bey  ant.    16mo,  pp.  129. 

Proposed  Legislation  on  the  Adulteration  of  Food  and  Medicine.  By  Ed- 
waed R.  Squd3b.     New  York :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.     12mo,  pp.  57. 

The  Secret  of  Success ;  or,  How  to  Get  On  in  the  World,  with  some  Re- 
marks upon  True  and  False  Success,  and  the  Art  of  making  the  Best  Use  of 
Life.  By  W.  H.  Dayenpoet.  Adams.  New  York :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
12mo,  pp.  389. 

Communism  in  America.  By  Heney  Ammon  James,  B.  A.  New  York : 
Henry  Holt  &  Co.     Royal  8vo,  pp.  86. 

Faith  and  Rationalism,  with  Short  Supplementary  Essays  on  Related 
Topics.  By  Geoege  P.  Fisheb,  D.  D.  New  York :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
12mo,  pp.  188. 

Rudder  Grange.  By  Feank  R.  Stockton.  New  York :  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's Sons.     16mo,  pp.  270. 

Conference  Papers  ;  or,  Analyses  of  Discourses,  Doctrinal  and  Practical ; 
delivered  on  Sabbath  Afternoons  to  the  Students  of  the  Theological  Seminary, 
Princeton,  N.  J.  By  Chaeles  Hodge,  D.  D.  New  York :  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.    8vo,  pp.  273. 


INDEX 

TO    THE 

HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-EIGHTH  VOLUME 

OF   THE 

$Lovtf)  Umivitun  liriHcu) 


Absent  Friends,  493. 

"  Accountant."    Mysteries  of  American 

Railroad  Accounting,  135. 
Appropriations    and     Misappropriations, 

National,  572. 
Blaine,  J.  G.    Negro  Suffrage,  225. 
Blair,    Montgomery.      Negro    Suffrage, 

262. 
Books  Reviewed,  97,  212,  326,  438,  681. 
Boutwell,    George    S.     Substance   and 

Shadow  in  Finance,  74. 
Bright,  John.    Will  England  return  to 

Protection?  695. 
Bryce,  L.  S.    A  Plea  for  Sport,  511. 
Byron,  Lord,  A  Friend  of,  388. 
Campaign  Notes  in  Turkey,  462. 
Census  of  1880,  393. 
Chamberlain,  D.  LI.     Reconstruction  and 

the  Negro,  160. 
Cities  as  Units  in  our  Polity,  21. 
Clarke,  J.  F.     Law  and  Design  in  Nature, 

557. 
Conduct  of  Business  in  Congress,  113. 
Cook,  Joseph.    Law  and  Design  in  Nature, 

548. 
Crane,  T.  F.    Mediaeval  French  Literature, 

213. 
Cruise  of  the  Florence,  86. 
Cryptography  in  Politics,  315. 
Current  Literature :  Smith's  Carthage  and 

the  Carthaginians;   Seeley's  Life  and 

Times  of  Stein  ;  De  Broglie's  Le  Secret 

duRoi;  Sime's  Lcssing  ;  Howells's  The 

Lady  of  the  Aroostook,  681. 
Edmunds,  George  F.  The  Fishery  Award,  1. 
Education  of  Freedmen,  605. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  his  Philosophy,  284. 
Election  Laws,  Our,  449. 
Empire,  The,  of  the  Discontented,  174. 
Evolution  and  Theology,  647. 
Finance,  Substance,  and  Shadow  in,  74. 


Fisher,  George  P.  The  Philosophy  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  284. 

Fishery  Award,  The,  1. 

Forests,  The  Preservation  of,  35^. 

Freedmen,  The  Education  of,  605. 

Friend,  A,  of  Lord  Byron,  388. 

Frothingham,  0.  B.   Absent  Friends,  493. 

Garfield,  J.  A.  National  Appropriations 
and  Misappropriations,  572. 

Garfield,  J.  A.     Negro  Suffrage,  244. 

German  Socialism  in  America,  372,  481. 

Greene,  F.  V.  Campaign  Notes  in  Tur- 
key, 462. 

Hampton,  Wade.    Negro  Suffrage,  239. 

Hardaker,  M.  A.  Hartmann's  "  Religion 
of  the  Future,"  434. 

Hare,  W.  H.  Introduction  to  Young  Jo- 
seph's Narrative,  412. 

Hartmann's  "  Religion  of  the  Future,"  434. 

Hassard,  John  R.  G.  Cryptography  in 
Politics,  315. 

Hazeltine,  Mayo  W.  Current  Literature, 
681. 

Hendricks,  T.  A.    Negro  Suffrage,  267. 

Hendricks,  T.  A.  Retribution  in  Politics, 
337. 

Hoar,  George  F.  The  Conduct  of  Busi- 
ness in  Congress,  113. 

Howgate,  H.  W.  The  Cruise  of  the  Flor- 
ence, 86. 

Howgate  Expedition,  its  Scientific  Work, 
191. 

Hughes,  T.  Public  Schools  in  England, 
352. 

Indian,  An,  his  Views  of  Indian  Affairs, 
412. 

James,  H.,  Jr.  A  Friend  of  Lord  Byron, 
388. 

Joseph,  Young.  An  Indian's  Views  of  In- 
dian Affairs,  412. 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.    Negro  Suffrage,  231. 


700 


THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 


Latin  Language,  Pronunciation  of  the,  59, 
405. 

Law  and  Design  in  Nature,  537. 

Literature,  Recent  Miscellaneous :  Weisse's 
Origin,  Progress,  and  Destiny  of  the 
English  Language  and  Literature ; 
Holmes's  John  Lothrop  Motley;  Con- 
way's Demonology  and  Devil-Lore; 
Kemble's  Record  of  a  Girlhood;  Ty- 
ler's History  of  American  Literature, 
438. 

Martin,  William  R.  Cities  as  Units  in 
our  Polity,  21. 

McCosh,  J.  Law  and  Design  in  Nature,  558. 

McCrary,  G.  W.    Our  Election  Laws,  449. 

McDonough,  A.  R.  Recent  Miscellaneous 
Literature,  438. 

Mediaeval  French  Literature:  Aubertin's 
Histoire  de  la  Langue  et  de  la  Litterature 
Francaise  ;  Gautier's  Epopees  Fran- 
caises  ;  Sepet's  Drame  Chretien  ;  Q-uiU 
laume  de  Palerne,  etc.,  213. 

Miles,  Nelson  A.  The  Indian  Problem, 
304. 

Mon  Testament,  565. 

Moore,  Thomas.     Unpublished  Poems,  15. 

Morton,  H.  Recent  Progress  in  Applied 
Science,  526. 

Muller,  Max.  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
631. 

Mysteries  of  American  Railroad  Account- 
ing, 135. 

National  Appropriations  and  Misappropri- 
ations, 572. 

Negro,  The,  ought  he  to  be  Disfranchised  ? 
ought  he  to  have  been  Enfranchised? 
225. 

Newcomb,  Simon.  Evolution  and  Theolo- 
gy, 647. 

Newcomb,  Simon.  Law  and  Design  in 
Nature,  537. 

Notes  on  Recent  Progress  in  Applied  Sci- 
ence, 526. 

Oswald,  Felix  L.  Preservation  of  For- 
ests, 35. 

Our  Election  Laws,  449. 

Pacific  Railroad,  The,  664. 

Phillips,  Wendell.    Negro  Suffrage,  257. 

Philosophy  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  284. 

Plea  for  Sport,  511. 

Politics,  Retribution  in,  337. 

Poor,  Henry  V.  The  Pacific  Railroad,  664. 

Porter,  David  D.  Secret  Missions  to  San 
Domingo,  616. 

Porter,  Noah.  Law  and  Design  in  Na- 
ture, 543. 

Preservation  of  Forests,  35. 

Price,  Bonamy.  Stagnation  in  Trade  and 
its  Cause,  587. 


Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  Language,  59> 
405. 

Protection,  Will  England  return  to  ?  695. 

Public  Schools  in  England,  352. 

Publications  Received,  111,  221,  335,  446, 
697. 

Railroad  Accounting,  American,  Mysteries 
of,  135. 

Retribution  in  Politics,  337. 

Recent  Fiction :  Trollope's  Is  he  Popenjoy  ? 
James's  The  Europeans  ;  James's  Daisy 
Miller  ;  Black's  Macleod  of  Dare  ;  Bur- 
nett's That  Lass  o'  Low-Tie's,  97. 

Reconstruction  and  the  Negro,  160. 

"  Russian  Nihilist."  The  Empire  of  the 
Discontented,  174. 

Russian  Novels  and  Novelists  of  the  Day : 
Diary  of  a  Sportsman  ;  Smoke  ;  I  rirgin 
Soil ;  Childhood  and  Youth  ;  War  and 
Peace  ;  Anna  Karenina,  326. 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  631. 

San  Domingo,  Secret  Missions  to,  616. 

Schools,  Public,  in  England,  352. 

Science,  Applied,  Recent  Progress  in, 
526. 

Scientific  Work  of  the  nowgat»  Expedi- 
tion, 191. 

Sensationalism  in  the  Pulpit,  201. 

Sherman,  O.  T.  Scientific  Work  of  the 
Howgate  Expedition,  191. 

Shevitch,  S.  E.  Russian  Novels  and  Nov- 
elists of  the  Day,  326. 

Socialism,  German,  in  America,  372,  481. 

"Solid  South,"  The,  47. 

Stagnation  in  Trade  and  its  Cause,  587. 

Statesman,  A,  of  the  Colonial  Era,  148. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.  Negro  Suffrage, 
240. 

Story,  W.  W.  Pronunciation  of  the  Latin 
Language,  59,  405. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher.  The  Education 
of  Freedmen,  605. 

Substance  and  Shadow  in  Finance,  74. 

Taylor,  Richard.  A  Statesman  of  the 
Colonial  Era,  148. 

Taylor,  William  M.  Sensationalism  in 
the  Pulpit,  201.      • 

Theology,  Evolution  and,  647. 

Trade,  Stagnation  of,  and  its  Cause,  587. 

Turkey,  Campaign  Notes  in,  462. 

Unpublished  Fragments  of  Moore's  "  Lit- 
tle" Period,  15. 

Voltaire,  Francois  Marie  Arocet  de. 
Mon  Testament,  565. 

Walker,  F.     The  Census  of  1880,  393. 

Watterson,  H.     The  "  Solid  South,"  47. 

White,  Richard  Grant.  Recent  Fiction, 
97. 

Will  England  return  to  Protection  ?  695. 


THE 


NORTH    AMERICAN 


REVIEW. 


EDITED  BY  ALLEN  THORNDIEE  BICE. 


VOL.  CXXVIII. 


Tros  Tyriusque  mihi  nullo  discrimine  agetur. 


NEW    YORK: 
D.    APPLETON   AND    COMPANY, 

549   &   551    BROADWAY. 

1879. 


COPYRIGHT   BY 
ALLEN  THORNDIKE  KICE. 

1879. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  CXXVIII. 


PAGE 


The  Fishery  Award.  By  George  F.  Edmunds,  U.  S.  Sen- 
ator      1 

Unpublished  Fragments  of  the  "  Little  "  Period.  By 
Thomas  Moore 15 

Cities  as  Units  in  our  Polity.     By  William  R.  Martin     21 

The  Preservation  of  Forests.    By  Felix  L.  Oswald,  M.  D.     35 

The  "Solid  South."    By  Henry  Watterson      .        .        .47 

The  Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  Language.     By  W.  W. 

Story 59 

Substance  and  Shadow  in  Finance.  By  George  S.  Bout- 
well  74 

The  Cruise  of  the  Florence.   By  Captain  H.  W.  Howgate, 

U.  S.  Army 86 

Recent  Fiction  :  Trollope's  Is  he  Popinjoy  ?  James's  The 
Europeans  ;  James's  Daisy  Miller ;  Black's  Macleod  of 
Dare ;  Burnett's  That  Lass  o'  Lowrie's.  By  Richard 
Grant  White 97 

Publications  Received Ill 

The  Conduct  of  Business  in  Congress.     By  G.  F.  Hoar, 

U.  S.  Senator 113 

The  Mysteries  of  American  Railroad  Accounting.     By 

an  Accountant 135 

A  Statesman  of  the  Colonial  Era.    By  General  Richard 

Taylor 148 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Reconstruction  and  the  Negro.     By  D.  H.  Chamberlain  161 

The  Empire  of  the  Discontented.     By  a  Russian  Nihilist  174 

The  Scientific  Work  of  the  Howgate  Expedition.  By 
O.  T.  Sherman,  Meteorologist  in  charge  .        .        .        .191 

Sensationalism  in  the  Pulpit.     By  the  Rev.  William  M. 

Taylor,  D.D 201 

Mediaeval  French  Literature  :  Histoire  de  la  Langue  et 
de  la  Litterature  Francaise  au  Moyen  Age  ;  Les  Epopees 
Francaises ;  Le  Drame  Chretien  au  Moyen  Age ;  Les 
Prophetes  du  Christ ;  Guillaume  de  Palerne  ;  Les  Sept 
Sages  de  Rome  ;  Miracles  de  Nostre  Dame  ;  Aiol.  By 
Professor  T.  F.  Crane 212 

Publications  Received 221 

Ought  the  Negro  to  be  Disfranchised?  Ought  he  to 
have  been  Enfranchised  ?  By  James  G.  Blaine,  U.  S. 
Senator;  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  U.  S.  Senator;  Wade  Hampton, 
Governor  of  South  Carolina;  General  James  A.  Garfield; 

*  Alexander  H.  Stephens  ;  Wendell  Phillips  ;  Mont- 
gomery Blair;  Thomas  A.  Hendricks       .  .        .  225 

The   Philosophy   of   Jonathan   Edwards.     By   Professor 

George  P.  Fisher,  D.  D 284 

The  Indian  Problem.    By  General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  U.  S. 

Army 304 

Cryptography  in  Politics.     By  John  R.  G.  Hassard        .  315 

Russian  Novels  and  Novelists  of  the  Day  :  The  Diary  of 
a  Sportsman,  and  other  Novels  ;  Smoke  :  a  Novel ;  Virgin 
Soil :  a  Novel ;  Childhood  and  Youth  ;  War  and  Peace  ; 
Anna  Karenina :  a  Novel.     By  S.  E.  Shevitch         .         .  326 

Publications  Received 335 

Retribution  in  Politics.     By  Thomas  A.  Hendricks        .  337 

The  Public  Schools  of  England.  By  Thomas  Hughes,  Q.  C.  352 


CONTENTS. 
German  Socialism  in  America 372 


V 
PAGE 


A  Friend  of  Lord  Byron.     By  Henry  James,  Jr.     .        .  388 

The  Census  of  1880.     By  George  Walker        .        .        .  393 

The  Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  Language.  Part  II.  By 
W.  W.  Story 405 

An  Indian's  Views  of  Indian  Affairs.  By  Young  Joseph, 
Chief  of  the  Nez  Perces.  With  an  Introduction  by  the 
Right  Rev.  W.  H.  Hare,  D.  D 412 

Hartm ann's  "  Religion  of  the  Future."    By  M.  A.  Har-  • 
daker 434 

Recent  Miscellaneous  Literature  :  Weisse's  Origin, 
Progress,  and  Destiny  of  the  English  Language  and 
Literature  ;  Holmes's  John  Lothrop  Motley ;  Conway's 
Demonology  and  Devil-Lore ;  Mrs.  Kemble's  Record  of  a 
Girlhood ;  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature.  By 
A.  R.  McDonough 438 

Publications  Received 446 

Our  Election  Laws.     By  George  W.  McCrary,  Secretary 

of  War  of  the  United  States 449 

Campaign  Notes   in  Turkey,  1877-78.      By  Lieutenant  F. 

V.  Greene,  U.  S.  Army 462 

German  Socialism  in  America.     Part  II 481 

Absent  Friends.     By  the  Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham     .        .  493 

A  Plea  for  Sport.     By  Lloyd  S.  Bryce    .        .        .        .511 

Notes   on    Recent    Progress   in    Applied    Science.     By 

Henry  Morton,  Ph.  D.,  President  of  Stevens  Institute    .  526 

Law  and  Design  in  Nature.  By  Simon  Newcomb,  LL.  D. ; 
the  Rev.  Noah  Porter,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Yale 
College ;  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  ;  the  Rev.  James  Free- 
man Clarke,  D.  D. ;  the  Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D., 
LL.  D.,  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey        .        .  537 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Publications  Received 563 

Mon  Testament.    £pitee  a  Chloe.    An  Unpublished  Poem. 

By  Fbancois  Mabie  Aeouet  de  Voltaiee    .        .        .  565 

National    Appeopeiations    and    Misappeopeiations.      By- 
General  J.  A.  Garfield 572 

The  Stagnation  op  Teade  and  its  Cause.     By  Professor 
'Bonamy  Peice 587 

The    Education    of    Fbeedmen.      By    Haeeiet    Beechee 
%Stowe 605 

Secret  Missions  to  San  Domingo.     By  D.  D.  Porter,  Ad- 
miral, U.  S.  Navy 616 

Sacred  Bgoks  of  the  East.     By  Professor  Max  Muller  .  631 

Evolution  and  Theology.      A  Rejoinder.      By  Professor 

Simon  Newcomb 647 

The  Pacific  Railroad.    By  Heney  V.  Poor.     .        .        .  664 

CUEEENT    LlTERATUEE.      By   MAYO   W.    HaZELTINE  .  .    681 

Will  England  eetubn  to  Peotection?    A  Letter  to  the 

Editor.     By  the  Right  Honorable  John  Beight,  M.  P.     .  695 

Publications  Received 697 

Index 699 


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JUST  PUBLISHED: 

History  of  New  York 

During  the  Revolutionary  War, 

AND  OF   THE  LEADING  EVENTS  IN   THE   OTHER  COLO- 
NIES  AT  THAT  PERIOD. 

•      By  THOMAS  JONES, 

JUSTICE  OF  THE  SUPREME   OOUBT  OF  THE   PROVINCE. 

Edited  by   EDWARD     FLOYD     DE     LANCY. 

WITH    NOTES,  CONTEMPORARY    DOCUMENTS,    MAPS,  AND    PORTRAITS. 


In   two  vols.,    8vo,    748   pp.,    713    pp.       Cloth,   gilt   top,    price,  $15.00. 
Printed  for  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  in  "  The  John  D. 
•  Jones  Fund  Series  of  Histories  and  Memoirs." 


"  Th«  work  now  first  given  to  the  world  in  these  volumes  is  a  loyalist 
history  of  the  subject  of  which  it  treats,  not  an  English  account.  The  his- 
tory of  the  course  of  the  loyalists  at  the  American  Revolutionary  epoch,  and 
of  the  plans  for  relief  from  the  British  tyranny  which  then  oppressed  Amer- 
ica, has  never  been  written.  There  can  be  no  greater  mistake  than  to  sup- 
pose that  the  loyalists  were  willing  to  submit  quietly  to  the  exactions  of  the 
mother-country,  and  the  invasion  of  their  rights  and  principles  as  English 
subjects. 

"The  Honorable  Thomas  Jones,  of  Fort  Neck,  Queens  County,  Long  Isl- 
and, a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  Recorder  of  the  City,  and  one  of  the  Judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Province  of  New  York,  is  the  author.  The 
work  was  written,  as  appears  from  allusions  in  the  text,  between  the  years 
1783  and  1788. 

"Judge  Jones  was  a  man  of  very  strong,  honest,  and  decided  charac- 
ter, with  a  keen  perception  of  injustice,  and  a  horror  of  all  laxity  of  prin- 
ciple and  chicane;  slow  in  forming  his  opinions,  and  as  firm  in  holding 
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freshness  and  cleverness  that  took  them  entirely  out  of  the  ordinary  run  of  magazine  stories.  Every 
one  who  lingered  over  these  delightful  stories  in  the  magazine  will  be  glad  to  see  them  at  last  in  the 
more  permanent  place  that  they  deserve,  which  will  put  them  in  the  reach  of  many  new  readers. 

CONFERENCE   PAPERS.     By  Charles  Hodge,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.     1  vol., 

8vo,  cloth,  $3.00. 

This  suggestive  and  masterly  volume  can  not  fail  to  be  widely  useful  among  clergymen  of  all 
denominations  as  exhibiting  remarkable  examples  of  that  analysis,  that  logical  grouping  and  per- 
spicuous exhibition  of  truth  which  is  an  essential  faculty  of  the  effective  preacher,  and  as  presenting 
in  an  analytic  form  an  amount  and  quality  of  homiletieal  example  and  suggestion  probably  not  sur- 
i  "the  same  number  of  pages  in  the  English  language. 

FAITH  AND  RATIONAEISJI.     By  Professor  George  P.  Fisher,  D.  D. 

1  vol.,  12mo,  cloth,  |1 

This  work  sets  forth  the  essential  nature  and  the  basis  rf  Faith,  and  by  contrast  the  method  and 

spirit  of  Rationalism.     It  has  to  do  with  the  philosophy  of  religion.    Connected  with  the  principal 

i.f  supplementary  essays  on  the  Relation  of  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution  to  Theism,  the 

Moral  and  Spiritual  Elements  in  the  Atonement,  Christ  not  a  Religious  Enthusiast,  the  Reasonable- 

the  Christian  Doctrine  of  Prayer,  etc. 

GOETHE    AND    SCHILLER.      Their  Lives  and  Works.     Including 

a  Commentary  on  "Faust."     By  Professor  Hjalmar  H.  Boyesen,  of  Cornell 

University.     1  vol.,  12mo,  cloth,  $2.00. 

"The  biographies  are  so  satisfactory  that  the  one  on  Goethe  may  well  be  read  alongside  of  that  of 
Lewes;  while  that  on  Schiller  deserves  warm  commendation  as  a  thorough  and  interesting  mono- 
graph.'"— Atlantic  Monthly. 

FAECONRERG.     By  Professor  IIjalmar  H.  Boyesen.     Illustrated.     1  vol., 

L2mo,  extra  cloth,  $1.50. 

"The  story  is  strongly  and  charmingly  told,  and  presents  a  graphic  picture  of  life,  society,  and 
politics,  in  a  Western  town  of  miscellaneous  population." — Boston  Advertiser. 

KIDDER  GRANGE.     By  Frank  R.  Stockton.     1  vol.,  16mo,  extra  cloth, 

<-Mr.  Stockton's  vein  of  humor  is  a  fresh  and  rich  one,  that  affords  pleasure  to  mature  people  as 
well  as  to  young  ones.    Thus  far,  l  Rudder  Grange'  is  his  best  effort."— Philadelphia  Bulletin. 


•♦*  The  above  books  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  will  be  sent,  prepaid,  upon  receipt  of  price,  by 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

Nos.  743  &  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


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